Are Normal Cases A Safe Thing?
by shadow-walker12
Summary: Vicki has just finished the case of Sarah in the Cobb Institute and is still gnawing on Mike s reaction on Henry s sudden outing, that happened in an unfortunate situation. She gets a new case to investigate and much to her relief, it seems to be a normal one. And Henry is still brooding over it, if he acted right with an outing, when he gets an unexpected call. Rated M for reason
1. Chapter 1

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

**Disclaimer: **All characters belong to Tanya Huff and the writers of the shows Blood Ties and Moonlight. Also some characters borrowed from the show Flash Point, so it´s eventually a bit of a triple, but I couldn´t resist it, as I liked this police show very much and it takes place in Toronto too. I´m writing for entertainment only and don´t make any money with it. No copyright infringement intended.

**Rated M** for reason, as there will be some strong stuff ahead in coming chapters. Hurt/comfort. Angst. Horror. This story belongs to a loosely tied together series for Blood Ties.

_This story takes place between Blood Ties episode #4 Gifted and episode #5 Deadly Departed. Vicki has just finished the case of Sarah in the Cobb Institute and is still gnawing on Mike´s reaction on Henry´s sudden outing, that happened in a rather unfortunate situation. She gets a new case to investigate and much to her relief, it seems to be a normal one, as she just had her first experiences with the world of the paranormal. And we know, that Vicki is a tough woman, always taking matters in her own hands..._

_And also Henry is still brooding over it, if he acted right with an outing, when he gets an unexpected call... _

_**Chapter 1 **_

**An unexpected call**

Henry was leaning over his desk and was coloring up his new graphic novel. Any way he couldn´t concentrate like usually, because his thoughts were drifting off to the night last week, when he had presented himself to the detective in all his vampire nature.

It hadn´t been a good moment. Not this relaxed situation, in which he could in all calmness somebody confront with the truth about his nature, without it being ending up with the typical Henry-vampire-monster reaction. Being honestly to himself, he had to state that he might have acted a bit too spontaneously. But the detective had seen too much of him in the Cobb-Institute; his eyes, the fangs, his physical strength...as that he might have been able to push that aside as an illusion. To manipulate the detective with his vampire compelling skills might have worked out, but a cop´s brain wouldn´t simply forget that without asking, what the heck he actually had seen. And a Detective Celluci who was investigating him behind his back like in a killer case, was by far more dangerously and incalculable for Henry, as to out himself, even when the moment had been the most unfitting of all.

Henry took a deep breath and adjusted his ink pencil, filling up the shape of the figure.

In that moment his cell phone rang.

He tried to ignore it, but the ringing went on and he remembered that he hadn´t switched on his mailbox. With an angry sigh he threw the ink pencil on his desk and pulled his cell from his pocket. Perhaps it was a call from Vicki, who needed some help in a case.

The voice on the other end was the sonorous of a man.

"It´s Augustus here! Henry Fitzroy...?!" the man greeted him.

"Yes! Hello Augustus...what´s going on...?" It was already unusual that Augustus was calling in, not contrary The man who cared for the matter of the immortals and who cared for it, that one could live as a vampire relatively undisturbed and without territorial fights, as long as everybody was acting by the rules.

"Hello Henry, old friend...how are you? How are your graphic novels going...?"

"Well, for sure you aren´t calling just for some small talk, hm?" Henry went in medias res immediately. "And to answer your question, Augustus: I´m well and I´m just working on a new novel. Final chapter. Coloration. But why are you calling? Are there any problems ahead?" Problems was meaning among vampires, that probably quarrels about an assigned territory were in front of the door or a contract was put in question or worse.

"No! There are no problems to worry about, Henry. But you´re about to get a visitor in your city." Augustus tried to calm him down. Point one sounded good, point two wasn´t what he might enjoy.

"A visitor? Somebody traveling during a removal?" Staying over day was such an act called. To give shelter for a day until the next sunset.

"No, it´s no removal, Henry...I´m having somebody here, who wants to come to Toronto cause he has official business over here. A vampire from Los Angeles."

"Augustus, you know that I´ll give shelter for one day, but I´m no hotel for those of our kind. One day; yes! In a pinch also two, when it´s inevitable, but not days- and weeks long." Henry already warned him prematurely.

A longtime visit, a vampire, with whom he would have to share his territory for good for a longer time, that was something, he won´t have use for currently. First of all he had to keep the thing with this detective Celluci under attention. And when additionally a second vampire was running through Toronto...Not all too long ago, the city has had its vampire hysteria, when Norman had tried to mix up Toronto his very own way. And Detective Celluci was already goaded when it came to _vampires_.

"So, Henry, when I´m honestly with you...and I have to, then I can´t tell yet, how long this visitor will stay in Toronto. He´s a private detective and investigates in a case of betrayal. He´s contacted me a couple of minutes ago, cause he knows that Toronto belongs to a vampire who plays in the "territory league"...!" Augustus pushed the situation to the fact, that Henry won´t tolerate anybody else in his city.

Henry thought it over. Territorial.

There was a species living in Los Angeles, a sub-species which was showing differences. As far as he knew, they were able to walk around outside in daylight, without bursting into flames directly. By this problems could grow, should the other turn out to be an opponent, while Henry was helplessly lying in daytime sleep. They were drinking blood like him. And in difference to him the obviously couldn´t cope with silver.

"And what do you want from me now, please?" Henry sounded a bit...angrily. Not because of Augustus call in general, but if he would have to share his territory with another vampire for a longer time right now...the last thing he had any need for!

"You won´t have to give him shelter personally, Henry. I´ll organize him a place in a hotel to stay, for the time he´ll stay in Toronto."

"As long as it isn´t the Four Seasons directly beside me! He does not have to crowd me all that time right beside me."

"I´ll be already caring for some distance, Henry. No prob! Only...when he´ll have to stay in your city, he´ll have to search for a feeding source..."

Henry was thinking. Hunting ground. When the other one was staying for longer, he will have to search for food, that was inevitable. He would investigate everywhere around, but _feeding_ was another question.

"As he can´t tell me how long he´ll have to stay, I want to make an agreement with you for a hunting ground!"

"Okay. Looks like it´ll be inevitable, Augustus! So well, tell him, when it comes to this, that he shall stay north of St. Claire and east of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. All what´s going north of it, is okay with me. Will I catch him south of it or even in Downtown, then it means serious trouble for him and you know, what I´m talking about, Augustus..." Henry warned him. He would neither tolerate a feeding in the restricted area, nor, the less a _feeding accident_, alas a corpse left behind! Who ever was about to feed in Toronto, had to stay with the rules! Feeding without a kill. He had promised to protect his sources, his donors, even from getting hurt anyway.

"Good, I´ll tell him..." Augustus took a deep breath of relief. That had gone pretty well. And with a smile he added: "He won´t be disturbing you, Henry! Thank you very much for your cooperation!"

Henry nodded. "When will he be arriving?"

"Tomorrow evening. His plane lands at around 5:30 pm. So I might tell him that his visit in your city will be okay, Henry!?"

"Yes, you can tell it him! And I´m expecting that he acts inconspicuously!"

"He´s an private detective, Henry! These guys are always working discreetly." Augustus assured him.

"I know! I know one!" Naturally he couldn´t see Henry´s grin.

"Well, good! I´m glad that we could come to an agreement, Henry!" Augustus was feeling better now than in the beginning of the call. Henry was a vampire of royal birth. He was way older than his client from L.A. and in some certain things Henry acted like the son of the king he still was. And when it came to his territory, he was giving no pardon. On the other side, Henry was reliable partner in case of agreements. He was keeping along the made agreements as long as they weren´t put in question from the other side. Henry feared nothing more than a war among vampires, but would be determined to stay his ground in case of!

"Thank you very much, Henry! And when any question occurs, don´t hesitate to call me. I´m always reachable for you!"

"Okay, Augustus and thank you for calling and...for your trust. I´m always yours! Good night, old friend!"

"Good night, Henry...!" It clicked in the connection, when Augustus hung up.

Henry sighed. It would have been easy for him to give Augustus a No, but the man was also a very old friend, beside the business that his family was fulfilling since generations. Henry knew him personally since some forty years, when he had taken over the function from his father Augustus Tiborius. And with a smile he asked himself, why the family was tending to the names of ancient Roman emperors. But maybe it was pointing out the importance of the business, that they performed for the community of the immortals. Whereat most of the vampires or immortals were definitely loners, in difference to the specimen that would be approaching _his_ _city_ soon.

After a long view out of his wide windows, Henry turned back to his illustrations.

Slowly his illustrations were filling up with colors and the longer he worked, the more he managed it to get his thoughts away from Detective Celluci and the visitor. After one hour he was satisfied by his work and he put the color inks aside. He switched off his desk lamp and got his coat to enjoy a snack in a club. Actually he wasn´t hungry because he had been feeding last night, but some distraction would be fine now. It wasn´t that late and in one of the clubs he often frequented, he would find those distraction that he needed now. Perhaps he´d meet one of his old acquaintances to spent the night with.

Henry locked up his condo and entered the elevator and drove down to the basement garage.

There wasn´t much traffic in the garage this time and only few moments later he steered his black Jaguar into the busy Bloor Street West. The street was one of the main traffic arteries of the city and practically always pedestrians and cars were on the street. After some minutes he reached one of his favorite clubs, he parked in a side street and mixed up with the row of waiting people, who were crowding the entrance from which loud jazz music was coming.

"Ah! Mr. Fitzroy...!" One of the doorman greeted him with a smile, waving him in irrespective of the waiting line. When one of the waiting girls grunted, the doorman replied; Conference with the boss, Lady!" What naturally was a plain lie. Henry simply was a regular guest. And those were let in ever, regardless of how many and of how much gotten dolled up girls were pushing in front of the door. The inside was jam-packed. Hundreds of scents and multiple babble of voices where forcing on him, but by long training he was able to push back this flood and to filter for the essential. His nostrils widened and he checked the air, looking around with a friendly smile, until he found a young woman standing at the side, who looked somewhat forlorn. Calmly he moved over to her, looking her over. Only shortly, but long enough to wake her interest without making a cloddish pass at her. Henry didn´t like that and he won´t do that too. He had been grown up to a gentleman like behavior. He turned his head away, being fully aware that she was still watching after him. Like by coincidence he turned over to her again.

"Are you searching for somebody?" he casually asked her.

"Uhm...no, not exactly. I came in alone..." she answered and looked in his face.

"May I invite you for a drink?" Henry asked with a smile.

"I´d love to...!" she followed him to the bar and Henry ordered a cocktail for her and a mineral water for him. The young woman looked very likable and the evening might be developing very pleasant...

**Toronto Metropolitan Police- Homicide**

Mike was sitting at his desk when he saw Crowley approaching. His mood went down to Point Zero. When she opened the door to his office she had only a few files in her hand. That was already unusual. Normally she used to pile up files over files on his desk.

"Detective Celluci, these are the documents for your on-the-job-training in Vancouver. Your plane goes 10:50 am tomorrow from Toronto. Training files, tickets and hotel reservation are added. Much success, Detective! And good night!" By this she left his office again.

Man, that´s the maximum of politeness that this hag is able to, Mike thought with a grin. Then he grabbed his cell phone from his desk.

It was ringing for a while until Vicki answered the call.

"Mike here! Hello, Vic...I wanted to tell you that I got my training approved! I´m flying tomorrow in the early morning, shortly before eleven am."

"How long will you be gone there?" Vicki asked while she kneaded the base of her nose.

"That´s running over four days, from the day after tomorrow. So I´m...including the flight back...yeap! Here it is! I´ll be back in Toronto on Saturday morning...!"

"Okay, then I´m wishing you much success and have fun. You really had to wait long enough for it, Mike."

"Yup! After ten years in the service it was about time, too that´s my turn finally!" Mike leaned cozily back in his office seat. "And how is it going on your side?"

"Ohh, so lala. Adultery, defalcation, adultery...the usual knit pick even. P.I. routine..." she mumbled.

"Not that creepy shit as with this girl, little Sarah and her father Stephen, I hope..." Mike sounded a bit angrily when he reminded the unfortunate event from last week.

"No! Completely normal stuff. And Sarah..."

"Listen to me! I don´t like it, that this Fitzroy is dragging you into this paranormal crap!...A vampire! As if the usual gangsters aren´t messing things up enough..." Mike´s voice regained more sharpness.

"Henry doesn´t drag me into anything!" Vicki protested.

"Call that as you like, Vic. Since you´re working together with him, you´re having only such cases. I think this to be rather dangerously!"

"Henry is helping me! He isn´t my employee! That is Coreen..." Vicki bit back.

"Doesn´t matter as what you´ll list him up. Helper. Employee. Anything else...first you don´t tell me _what_ he is. And then you practically know nothing at all about him! I´m honestly asking me, where your cop instincts have gone to...!" Mike was slowly gaining momentum, that she could hear by his voice. He did make no secret of his antipathy against Henry.

"Ups! And cause of my, in every sense, blurred sight of the world..." Vicki referred to her RP. "...and my non-knowledge, as you´ve so eloquently put it, you´re sniffing after Henry like after one of your killers!" she snarled yet.

"Apropos sniffing! Where from at all are you meaning to know, what I do? I´m only trying to protect you, Victoria!"

"Protection! I don´t need protection! And do you seriously believe, that Henry doesn´t know what you´re doing?...Mike! Mike!...Henry gets enough of it to know that you´re after him!"

"It seems to me that this guys has his eyes and ears everywhere. Or his footmen, who´ll bring it to him..." Mike cursed. When he was thinking of it, he didn´t like it to let Vicki all alone with the vampire.

How ever could Vicki be so careless in acting with new partners?

Eventually this bastard was a vampire! Who is drinking blood, human blood! Or had Fitzroy Vicki already that kinda spellbound, that she didn´t see the danger anymore. In the movies vampires were hypnotizing their subordinates, so that they obeyed and didn´t get it anymore, whom they were serving. Like this crackbrained Renfield in _Dracula_. And to let Vicki back for five days now with a new and incalculable partner, really chapped his hide. Was the stress as a freelancer private eye not sufficiently enough, that she was always maneuvering herself into new danger?

"Vicki! Please be careful! Keep out of dangerous tasks...Hopefully that isn´t wanted too much of you, Vic!"

"Thanks for your concern! I wish you a good flight. Till Saturday, Mike!" Her voice sounded very frosty. Then the click indicated, that Vicki had hung up.

"Crap!" Mike threw his cell on the desk in frustration.

He had a bad vibe about that...

**At the same time in Toronto Downtown**

"I´m staying somewhat longer tonight, Ms. Langdon!"

"Okay, Mr. Fulton, I´ll be still finishing the mail, then I´ll be gone..." the young office assistant replied, when she was balancing a pile of folders. She shoved the door open with her foot, then she was outside.

The man in the office chair logged in with a password to a data file, to which only he had access. He shot the door a look, then he opened a list and started to work. His fingers were flying over the key board, changing codes here and there and numbers switched from red to green, when various amounts of money changed the owner and were lead to different banks. Now and then he looked up from his screen to check if nobody came in or moved along outside his office.

Then the office assistant opened the door, only looking in and said: "I´ll go now, Mr. Fulton! Good night, till´morrow."

"Yeap. Nice evening, Ms. Langdon, see you tomorrow..." he replied. Then she was gone. He heard her high heels clicking over the parquet floor, then outside the door feel shut.

Pretty nice, but even not the brightest bulb in the box..., he thought. Only works here, cause she holds her butt up to Johnson...

With an icy smile he let himself sink back in his leather chair, crossing his arms behind his head and he watched over his work in utter satisfaction.

His _boss_ would be very satisfied.

Another 875 thousands of Dollars had been filtered through the company structure, splitting them over different accounts, which were running over the Bermudas and Switzerland to meet again on the account of his boss. 875 thousands of Canadian Dollars, which had turned into white funds from various transactions which all had been illegal. Innocent like freshly fallen snow.

When the shipment from Macao would be coming in, there would be the next discreet transactions ahead when the brokers would pay, before the stuff would be flooding Toronto and Montreal. The Canadian market was thriving over the last time and when they stayed carefully, it would be expanding further on, he thought with a smirk, before he closed the data file and turned over to inconspicuously, utterly legal payments.

What slipped from his attention, was the fact that a little mistake had happened three days ago. Coincidentally Mr. Johnson, the owner of the trading company, had looked himself over the payments to get an overview of the running transfers in the most recent quarter. Thereby he had seen irregularities in two payments, which he couldn´t explain despite internal research. Payments which had been delegated by Mr. Fulton.

Mr. Johnson put up his cell phone. He thought it over for a moment. His company was about to arrange important business agreements with a new Chinese partner in Toronto and to start police investigations now, seemed not to be recommendable. That wouldn´t look good, when amidst negotiations for longtime business connections in China, the name of his company would show up in connection with the police. For sure, manipulations in business reports, defalcation and to cook the books...that was occasionally happening even in the best companies. But his Chinese business partners were attaching great importance not _to lose face_. And they would see this that way, would the company´s name be called in one breath with the TMP.

A private eye could investigate that discreetly, without partners or employees growing suspiciously. Beside this handling avoided lawsuits, worth several millions should the accused turn out to be innocent, but would see his reputation ruined. In the business often enough a bare suspicion could be enough to send a career down the drain. And this might become _really expensive_ for him!

After thinking it over again, he dialed the number from the advertisement.

Victoria Nelson Investigations. Private detective. Discreet investigations of all kind. Observation, legally accepted evidence. No case is too difficult for us, no case too uncommon. Under it he found the contact data.

He intentionally ignored the _The occult is our specialty._

He dialed the cell phone call number.

Vicki had just finished her conversation with Mike. Her mood was below Zero or on the boiling point, depending on how one would look at.

Her cell phone was ringing again.

Once again Mike? What did he want though?

Without looking at the caller-ID, she pressed her cell to her ear and so her voice was rather harsh, when she answered the call.

"Yes?!"

"Miss Nelson, Private Investigations?" a male voice asked. It wasn´t Mike.

"Oh, beg your pardon! Yes, you´re speaking with Vicki Nelson, private detective...Sorry, but I expected somebody else. What can I do for you?"

"Walter Johnson from Johnson Inc.! I have to beg your pardon, that I´m calling you on a Sunday and at this time, Ms. Nelson."

"That doesn´t matter..."

"Thanks. Look...I´m gonna need your help and it´s with some urgency. I right about to have important business conversations and I´ve found...irregularities in transfers and account transactions! i´ll need somebody who might investigate discreetly in my company without causing unwelcome attention."

"You´re suspecting an employee or a business partner?" Vicki asked without hesitation.

"Yes, an employee. I want to have that cleared as inconspicuously as possible, before I would involve the police with a verified evidence. Look, Ms. Nelson, it won´t make a good impression, when the name of my company shows up in connection with the TMP, when I´m right about to close important trading agreements."

"I´m completely understanding, Mr. Johnson." Vicki reassured him.

So a case of defalcation or betrayal. Nothing that uncommon for a P.I., she thought.

"Can you take over this case?" he asked. He had put some pressure in his voice. Probably he was under some certain pressure himself.

"Yes, I can take this! How do you imagine to handle this in detail, Mr. Johnson?"

"I´ll smuggle you in...you´ll come to my company as a volunteer of accounting. You´ll be assisting my office assistant and me. Then you´ll have the possibility to investigate and you´ll only report to me!"

"Sounds good! Might you come over here afterwards, Mr. Johnson? Then we can talk about the details in my office."

"In about half an hour? Would that be okay for you, Ms. Nelson?

"That´s okay! You´re having my address?!...251 Huron Street, second floor..."

"I have it. Thanks so much. See you soon..." it clicked in the line.

Vicki shoved her cell back in her pocket, pulling on another pullover and she rearranged her hair that was tousled from the work out. About half an hour later Mr. Johnson was sitting in her office. A short conversation with him and she had a new client and order.

A totally normal case. A safe thing.

Nothing paranormal. Just as Mike had recommended her.

_To be continued_.


	2. Chapter 2 So simple

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 2**_

_We all know about Vicki´s stubborn mind and sometimes it may be helpful when it comes to decisions. But always...?_

**So simple...**

Mick St. John, private eye from Los Angeles, was sitting completely relaxed in the plane. In a few hours he would be landing in Toronto, in the territory of... how he had to point out...another vampire. There were no such fineness or problems in L.A. In his hometown some hundred vampires were peacefully living together or side to side. There were no bordered territories or areas, the vampires were meeting, peacefully living together or one simply stayed off from another, when they didn´t like each other. Business was running as usually among the mortals, food was available, either bagged food, as Mick preferred it, or from living sources. And should any _feeding accident_ happen, then there was the troupe of the _Cleaners_, who took care of, that nothing might be coming over to the world of the mortals.

But in Toronto everything was different!

Augustus, who took care of the matters of the immortals, had rented him rooms in a hotel and had enjoined him to take care for where he would be searching for food, without going to get into each other´s way. The territory owner had assigned him a hunting ground for the time of his stay, which _he please might keep as short as possible!_ Probably it won´t be the best of the city, Mick thought. But he was anyway feeding from the Tetra Pack, so he wasn´t dependent from human veins. At all he could barely remind when he had been feeding directly from the source for the last time. Only after his turning and when Beth had found him in the desert.

The _other_.

This vampire was almost five hundred years old, six times older than him. He claimed his territory like a king was claiming his country and who was descending from one of the most glamorous characters of the European history; King Henry VIII. And in whose veins royal bastard blood was running! And this vampire belonged to a species, who absolutely couldn´t cope with sunlight. In the sunlight he would crucifyingly burn to ashes alive. The sheer thought of it made Mick shudder. He avoided the full sunlight, because it weakened him and in the desert he had gotten damn much of it, but he wouldn´t burst into flames. Sunlight was unhealthy, a discomfort, but not life threatening. Mick asked himself how the other one could have survived so long with such a handicap. But probably all a matter of habit...

Mick had allowed himself a snack from the bag in the plane´s men´s room and now he felt sated and rested. The stewardess was offering snacks and drinks and Mick ordered a mineral water. That he was able to drink. Over the years he had tried out this and that, less by the urge for it but by the necessity to hide his true nature from humans. It wasn´t always possible to stay with water, when in some cases he had to cope with clients, which would feel it as an insult, when he would deny an offered drink. Alcohol had no effect on his vampire body, not the way it had on humans. He couldn´t get drunk...fortunately. He was able to drink alcohol, mostly rather pure stuff, not these incalculable mix drinks like cocktails, where contents, like some herbs, could have unwelcome effects. Nothing severe but uncomfortable as nausea.

It was the first time, that he would have to stay in the _territory_ of another vampire, but his investigations had made it an inevitable fact, that he had to travel personally to Toronto. Augustus had provided him with as much information as possible and his hotel was in central Downtown, but as he had pointed out, far enough from the residence of Henry Fitzroy. Mick asked himself, what guy he would be. The oldest vampire Mick knew personally, was Josef Kostan, who was some four hundred years old or existing. He was a very successful Hedge Fund Trader, who had brought it to...fabulous...wealth in only a few years. Josef was a successful swinger, who enjoyed his life and wealth, without turning his eyes from the others around him. And he preferred to drink from a living source, in difference to him, Mick.

Mick would, if even possible, take care to stay off Fitzroy´s path, who was setting no great store by equal society. Normally Mick preferred it to get into contact with those of his own kind, especially in a foreign town everything went better, when one had contacts which came up with information. Up to the question how to get to blood on longer stays. And _City Guides for Vampires_ were available on internal websites, but unfortunately for every city. Maybe I should be reporting to Beth afterwards, so she can write one, he thought with a smile, when he sipped on his water.

There had been only one remark listed with Toronto: Contact Augustus before traveling to Toronto! With three exclamation points. What indicated that Toronto was a so called territory, dangerous area! That fitted on some large cities, which were in the hands of a territory owning vampire. Also New York was split up, but one could move in there when a visitor was inconspicuously and didn´t cause trouble. Normally he had to keep his secret hidden from humans. To be wary of one of his own kind, was somewhat unusual.

With a smile he turned his attention back to his book.

**Johnson Inc. & Co**

Vicki entered the high risen building, one of these skyscrapers that had shot out of ground over the last years like mushrooms in a moist fall forest. She looked on the large glass plate, that listed the tenants, companies and owners of the building and took the elevator to the twelfth floor. Up there she directly went to the young woman at the reception desk, who smiled at her.

"Nelson. Victoria Nelson. I´m to be expected by Mr. Johnson..."

"So you are the new volunteer...?"

"Yes, Ma´am..." Vicki decided to fly low under the radar.

"Oh, welcome Ms. Nelson. Please introduce yourself at room 1214, Ms. Langdon is waiting for you..."

"Thank you!" Vicki went to the office, knocked at the door. Some minutes later Mr. Johnson was leading her through the company, introducing her to the other employees as a volunteer, so nobody would ask, what she did in the company. He gave her a desk in a small office, right beside his own, with computer, printer and copier.

"I´ll call you in for a meeting in the late afternoon. You´re understanding..." Mr. Johnson said with a smile, putting all his hopes in Vicki´s investigative skills.

"Thank you. It´s all okay. Meanwhile I´ll work through your system and your data files, to which you´ve given me access..."

"I can´t you hand out all passwords, as you may understand. So in some cases you´ll have to ask for my help, Ms. Nelson..."

"Quite sure, Mr. Johnson. I fully agree with you, so let´s get started..."

"Good, Ms. Nelson...see you later"

Vicki logged in, going through booking files, accounts and bank transactions. All was looking relatively unsuspicious. At first. But then she came to a transaction which couldn´t be classified into the other transfers. The bank over which this transaction had taken place didn´t belong to the banks used by Mr. Johnson. That could be one of the accounts which Mr. Johnson had mentioned. Vicki tried to roll up the transaction, to follow it back to its base, but after some clicks suddenly access was denied. The system asked for a password, which she hadn´t gotten.

"Uhm, strange...the other ones are traceable openly. Ask me, why this one is locked..." she mumbled. Vicki tried out some other combinations for a password, but they didn´t work. She decided to show this entry to Mr. Johnson.

"Look, here...this one...It denies me access. Who´s been working on it?"

Johnson bent over her, watching the screen more closely.

"That´s been Mr. Fulton...He works on the transfers from account to account. All the transactions are going through his hands...Looks like he has sealed or locked up that one. Normally such transfers aren´t secured by a password..." Mr. Johnson tried another password, but with the same result. Access denied.

"How many of such transfers did you find, Ms. Nelson?"

"Two! Both over different banks. One is in Macao...the other one on the Bermudas. Both have offices in Europe: Switzerland and Liechtenstein..." Vicki whispered.

"Uhm...Switzerland...certainly you´ve seen that I have transfers via Swiss National Bank, but not this one, Mr. Fulton has used. And I don´t transfer to or via Macao..." Johnson replied.

"Then these seemed to be transactions which hadn´t been legalized by you, Mr. Johnson..." Vicki gave back thoughtfully. "The money is split up to various accounts, also this you´re doing only with differing recipients, as I see..."

Mr. Johnson scratched his chin and knitted his brows.

He had seen such a sealed booking once before; two months ago. He had been wondering though, but hadn´t given it much importance, because this transfer had gone via one of his banks he used. Perhaps a single client, who coincidentally used the same bank, especially as the amount hadn´t been that extraordinarily high.

But these transfer amounts here were high!

"What do you think of it, Ms. Nelson? Shall I talk to Mr. Fulton about it?"

"No! First of all I´ll try to find out more of it! I don´t wanna feel him occupied and will grow suspiciously." Vicki warned him. She worked through another path and after half an hour she had completed a list, which she copied to an USB-stick for Mr. Johnson.

"Do you have a laptop, which doesn´t work on intranet network? So that shouldn´t leave back any traces. You need a shielded wireless LAN." she meant, when she handled over the stick to him.

"Yes, I have a shielded, private laptop..." he stated and looked over to the door.

"Where is it?" In the office won´t be safe, as for sure Mr. Fulton won´t hesitate to install some surveillance tool when he was about to defalcate money from the company...

"At home! Come over to me tonight! That´s my address..." Johnson wrote a note for her, shoved it in her hand. Like these little snippets of paper which pupils used for crib.

"Good. I´ll be there!" Vicki deleted all traces of her secret research from the computer, so it won´t be that easy to track her actions unless the hard disk drive would be restored.

In the office next to her, Mr. Fulton controlled his transactions from the evening before, then it came to his attention, that he had made a little mistake three days ago.

Mr. Li Vu Huan won´t be amused! The transfers had landed, but they hadn´t been completely hidden. When he heard somebody outside passing the office, he looked up. He saw Mr. Johnson coming out of the office, together with this blonde new one. He asked by instinct, what his boss had been doing so long in the office of a volunteer.

And why explicitly was a new volunteer showing up in the executive suite now?

This blonde looked good, but she wasn´t even around the twenties...a typical student age. And her manner was less business like, but rather a bit tweedy. Fulton decided to give the matter some closer attention.

When Vicki had left her office in the evening, Mr. Fulton slipped through the door, which was, in difference to his own, made of wood. Nobody had seen him and Ms. Langdon had left too. He started the computer, logged in with the password Vicki had gotten too. He inserted a disk, which allowed him to check the former computer operations. He had gotten the disk from a hacker who worked for Mr. Li Vu Huan.

It took him a while to configure the computer, so he would be able to reactivate even a deleted process. Then he found what he was searching for.

He started to curse under his breath.

Damn it! This blonde chick had searched through his hidden transfers!

Through those which hadn´t accidentally been hidden completely.

And that was absolutely not the job of a volunteer, also not on the executive suite. That could only be meaning one thing:

This bitch was a hidden investigator. Either from the police or, what he thought to be more probable: a private detective, which his boss had smuggled in!

Enraged he hit on the keys. Deleting his own research action from the hard disk drive and left the volunteer office.

He had to do anything, taking matters in his own hands, otherwise...when she would blow his cover, then he wouldn´t only lose his job, but Mr. Huan can´t take a joke, when somebody snafued his business. He had his fingers in almost every pie and this planet wasn´t large enough to hide from him.

On his way home he went into an internet cafe, starting a search for private detectives. What the heck was the blonde´s name? Yup! Nelson was the name that Mr. Johnson had addressed her with. After a short search he found it. _Nelson Investigations. Victoria Nelson. Private detective, 251 Huron Street, Toronto._

Fulton decided to pay this Ms. Nelson a special visit.

He had to get rid of this bitch and this had to happen fast. Before Mr. Huan would set up an order of murder, he thought. The only question was that of the proper weapon to be used...

A firearm wouldn´t be good, but...in the advertisement was anything written of _occult as specialty _He couldn´t get a ghostly killer, but only some weeks ago Toronto had been terrorized by dubious murders with slashed throats and corpses which had been sucked dry.

So what would be more obvious than...

...to set a monster murder in scene...?

There had been heads cut off halfway by talons or claws.

**Toronto Downtown**

Henry wasn´t in the best mood yet. He had finished the coloration of his newest graphic novel and it was on its way to his publisher. That was positive. Yesterday night he had met Sandra in a club, the small blonde, who had been at his home more often. He had allowed himself a little snack, a bit of cuddling in a dark niche, a bit of blood.

It annoyed him that another vampire was walking the streets of Toronto now.

That was never very pleasant, at least it was bothersome. But now his thoughts were circling around Detective Celluci and their tensed, uncertain relationship. Maybe I should Vicki pay a visit, to talk about with her. She eventually knows Celluci best and since a long time. Tomorrow he wanted to care about the home of his young friend...Tony Foster. He had rent him a home that at least was in a way better condition, than his former place. No large home but neatly and with a bathroom, so that he won´t have to share it with a whole bunch of teenagers.

Henry took a shower, changed his clothes and sat down on the leather couch. It was raining outside and the wind pushed thin veils of rainwater against his large windows, where they finally ran down on them outside. So it was not the best option to look over _his_ city. He thought of inserting a DVD into his player to watch a movie to get somewhat distracted. He didn´t need distraction very often, because mostly he was out in the night or working on his graphic novels or taking a snack from one of his meal-on-legs. But since the last week he was quarreling with his outing to Celluci and the consequences of it. The man was equally stubborn like Vicki, an experienced cop and investigator. Maybe it depended from always coping with corpses, victims of murder, sometimes more, sometimes less mutilated.

With a sigh he got a DVD from the shelf, inserting it. Then he dialed Vicki´s call number. Maybe she would come over and they could watch the movie together. It rang for a while, then the mailbox started, informing him that Vicki wasn´t available. He shrugged his shoulders, deciding to try it again any time later. Probably she was showering. Or she slept.

Henry started the movie...

Deep under his home, some blocks away, Vicki had finished her dinner, that was made of a hastily compounded collection of leftovers via microwave.

"Maybe I should Henry pay a visit...if he´s at home" she thought. "But first I´ll have to go to Mr. Johnson..." She dressed in her parka, grabbed her bag from the table and went down the stairs. She would buy something at the next corner, before she would call a cab. It was raining outside, wind and gentle rain. Vicki shoved down the Huron Street until she reached the shop, where she often bought food and supplies. The shop was only moderately visited by customers at this time and so she didn´t need long until she was on her way again.

Vicki didn´t notice that she was followed by a figure in dark clothes, who was watching her since she had left the house. On the one hand the reason was, that her eyesight had become weakly in the darkness, on the other hand that she was moving tightly along the wall, to make use of the porches.

At the entrance to a side street her path suddenly got blocked by a figure. Long coat and a ski mask under a hat.

Vicki grabbed in her bag in a reflex, pulling out her baton and hauling out, ready to strike.

The first strike hit target but her attacker twitched only, then ducked and hauled out with one foot, targeting for her head. Vicki drew aside and the man whirled around, was back immediately, when her back hit the wall.

"What the fuck!?" she cursed and went into a counter attack. She clenched her hand to a fist, smashing down on his forearm, that was moving down in a bow and she saw anything bright and slim flashing through the dark. Vicki let herself fall, rolling off and leaping to her feet again. She wanted to attack her opponent from the side, but he seemed to have foreseen it. Suddenly he slipped through under her move, his left hand moved down and then he was beating upwards with his fist.

Vicki groaned when he hit her belly and her solar plexus exploded.

For a moment stars were glittering in front of her eyes, for mere seconds only.

Seconds, which were enough, so that the guy could haul out newly. His right hand drove around and upwards, crossing her belly in a flash.

Vicki only felt a sharp, cutting pain, when the brightly shimmering weapon was cutting through her upper belly muscles, then the attacker turned around and ran across the street, down the Huron Street. In a reflex Vicki wanted to follow him, but raging pain almost pulled her legs from under her. She cried out and pressed her hand on her belly and felt, that warm wetness was welling out from under her hand and was soaking through her fingers.

There was no need to lift her hand in front of her eyes, to know that the warm wetness had only once source and meant only one thing: blood!

"Fuck! Damn fucking shit!" she pressed out, then she sagged against the wet brick wall. Her eyesight was fogging even more than it was still caused by her RP. With useless eyes she stared through the rain veiled darkness around her. Far, far away humans were moving up the street like shadows. Away from her.

"Shit! Henry...!" she stammered. "Henry...where are you, when I need you...?" The blood was welling out between her fingers into her jeans, the pullover and the shirt. The pain was rising instead of subsiding, when she was slowly and more by instinct than by conscious thinking, moving in direction of her home. It was more a staggering and creeping than going and she pressed her hand to the wall, in an attempt to steady her steps...

"I have to get home! Get home...home..." her throat was suddenly dry and it threatened to constrict by rising panic. Mike had...he had...don´t take any dangerous orders! Don´t! Mike had...he had... Her heart was in her mouth. Have to get home...Home...

_To be continued_


	3. Chapter 3 I need you soPart One

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 3**_

_Sometimes there is a chance to regret a decision, but sometimes life doesn´t give us a chance..._

**I need you so... Part One **

Every few seconds she felt miserable dizzy and her heart was racing, pumping the blood through her body with pounding pain.

_When your heart beats too fast, you´ll lose too much blood even faster._

After some yards she stopped, feeling with her hand over her belly. She tried to concentrate on what she once had learned at Police Academy. When the blood was coming out jerkingly, then this asshole would have hit her abdominal artery, the damn biggest and thickest vein in the whole body. Then there were left to her maybe two, probably three, minutes before she would have bled to death. Vicki lifted her hand from her belly, dared to look down...

The blood was welling out constantly between her fingers, so at least it wasn´t the artery. God in heaven! You have to get home...home, she hammered into her conscious mind. To get home and then she might put a bandage on the wound, so that the bleeding would stop. That was only a damn scratch, that would heal again. Maybe Henry could...his saliva would be healing something like that. In her current condition it didn´t come to her mind anymore that she should go to a hospital. With tears in her eyes and her hand pressed on her belly, Vicki stumbled along the wall, her view was fixed to the ground as if she could make her feet move by it. She didn´t notice the views of other people who passed by. Who thought her to be drunk or to be stoned up to the cortex.

When she crossed a side street she almost ran into a car, that stopped in front of her in the last moment, when the driver pushed the brake.

With her teeth bared by the pain, she hit with her flat hand on the car´s radiator. The driver honked and she staggered on. Stumbling up on the sidewalk and she almost fell, when she could barely lift up her foot. Vicki groaned through clenched teeth and caught herself at the opposite wall.

Today her home seemed to be miles away, at the other end of the universe that was called Toronto.

After obviously an eternity she reached her home. To climb up the stairs seemed to be a sheer impossibility, but finally she was standing in her rooms. Half blinded by the tears that the agonizing pain was driving in her eyes, she shoved her trembling body into the bathroom, feeling for the light switch. Anyway the light switched on and Vicki felt a wave of nausea rising in her throat. She grabbed for the edge of the sink, her fingers clung around the cold porcelain. She felt dizzy from the blood loss and she had to take her hand off the wound to open the closet and to get the first aid box out. A new wave of pain was running through her upper belly when she let herself sink on the seat with last strength.

Vicki couldn´t remind afterwards how she had managed it to get out of the pullover and the shirt, to get rid of the blood soaked jeans and fixing a thick layer of gauze compresses on her abdominal wall.

Muffled sounds were getting in her ears and Vicki managed it to open her eyes with some effort and after several attempts. Grayness flooded into the room and with utmost effort she turned her head to the window.

Outside, the sun was sinking below the horizon.

Sinking? Why...sinking...?

It had to be early morning though.

A look on the clock was showing her that it was about six pm. Evening.

Had she been sleeping the whole day? Or had she been...unconsciously? Choking nausea was rising in her when she turned her face to the side, followed by a wave of dizziness that was welling up around her as a black wall.

"Oh God...God in heaven..." Vicki groaned. She felt with her hand for her belly, feeling over the bandage. It felt thick and hard, solidified by clotted blood.

Slowly she reminded what had happened.

Anybody had attacked her in the street. Who that had been...? She hadn´t been able to identify the...man. Dark rags, the face hidden behind a biker´s mask.

Her pulse was pounding in her throat and her head. She felt like crap...

But one point was clear: She couldn´t stay in her home! And she couldn´t go into a hospital, cause the guy might be able to attack her there like here again, when she was lying in a bed. Only...

where to go?

Mike wasn´t in Toronto. He was far away in Vancouver on the other side of Canada. For a moment she thought how good he had it. Four days off, four days no corpses, no crazy cases. Her only option would be Henry! Just in case she would be able to make it to him, she would be in safety there. A vampire was a superhuman opponent. And her best protection in the moment.

You´re crazy, Vicki, she warned herself. Henry is a vampire. Mike was right with it; she didn´t know anything about Henry but the little what he had told her about himself. He was drinking blood, human blood. And she was full of it, respectively what was left over of it. Not that much when she pointed out her head and the choking waves of dizziness, not to talk about, that she was not only smelling of blood, she would literally be stinking of it!

Like a bipedal target which was standing amidst the landscape, waving with the arms.

Here I am! Drain me on ex!

But there was no other chance left to her. When she would be staying here and this guy would find her, she would be a rather dead P.I.

Her cell phone was lying on the small nightstand beside her bed. Beside it there was a small handwritten note. Vicki pulled it to her with a hand. Touching for it, until she got it, because she had to lie firmly on her back. Even every so little movement was causing new pain, which were spreading down her legs and up her chest. Vicki squinted her burning eyes and she could make out the note as Coreen´s handwriting. God, the good girl was writing clearly and in large letters at least!

Hello, Ms. Nelson! Take your time for a good sleep, for sure the night was exhausting! I´ll already handle the office matter today. I wish you a good, restorative sleep. SY Coreen.

Good girl. Such assistants were worth of gold. Obviously Coreen had thought, she would only be totally overtired and she hadn´t seen the bandage under the blanket, that Vicki had pulled over herself. Vicki shortly listened to the front, to her office. Everything was silent there, so obviously Coreen had already left. Vicki asked how she even had managed it into her bed. Everything that was lying between reaching her home and the awakening now, was drifting away in her memory. That was indicating that she obviously had been unconsciously for a longer time and that her body had simply pulled the emergency brake.

After several minutes she managed it to sit up carefully and to get out of her bed. What her body answered with a new wave of dizziness.

"Crap! I must have left half of my blood on the street..." Vicki mumbled when she slowly moved in direction of her wardrobe, where her parka was hanging. With trembling hands she got a new jeans from it, pulling over the first, best polo-neck shirt and a pullover. To pack a bag was exceeding her capacities. With a loud groaning she let herself sink back on the bed´s edge and saw her confronted with the task to anyway get on her jeans, where for she had to bent over. After a couple of tryings she had pulled it up her legs and closed the zipper. She felt miserable dizzy and she was feeling like being bathed in sweat, though her teeth were chattering.

Crap! Mr. Johnson...! she should have paid him a visit yesterday evening, to check through the data files...shot it through her mind with searing heat. With trembling fingers she pressed the keys with the call number, he had given her. He answered her call immediately.

"Ms. Nelson?! What´s going on? I´d been expecting for the last evening..." he sounded rather astonished than annoyed. But what he was for sure and he was right with it.

"I´m so very sorry, Mr. Johnson. I´ve been on my way to you yesterday evening...and...unfortunately I had an...accident." Impossible to tell him, that she had been attacked, with some possibility by this Mr. Fulton...

"Oh goodness, I´m hoping...you´re all well!" He sounded honestly concerned. Vicki took a deep breath before she went on, with some effort hiding a hiss that threatened to grow in her throat. God damn!

"It´s going...so goodish...Only, you might know that...to set my foot under narcotics...and then it takes hours until one is clearly minded again..." she lied to him. "Tow or three days of rest the doc said...then i´m active for you again...no prob!" Hopefully he didn´t hear how unsteady her voice was.

"Dislocated?!"

"Yes, my left feet. As said...in two or three days I´ll be back on job, Mr. Johnson...Is that okay for you? As I mentioned...I´m up the deck again since only one hour. I´m so sorry that I couldn´t call you back earlier." She tried to put some pressure to her voice, so that was sounding convincing. What would she have given right now for Henry´s compelling skills...! Maybe he can teach me some lessons in that, she thought and mentally kicked her own ass. You´re drifting off, sweetie!

Three days! Then she would have to be fit again!

"Well, good. Then we´ll see on Friday?"

"Yeap! Meanwhile I´ll see...what I can do for you, Mr. Johnson!"

"Good, thank you. Feel better soon, please. And good night, Ms. Nelson."

"Thank you, you´re so kind! And a good night to you too, Mr. Johnson. Thank you for your understanding..."

She would have liked to let plainly drop her body back on the bed, to simply sleep on. But it was already dark outside and she had to look to get outta here, before this guy would be showing up here. What seemed to be rather certain, because neither in the newspaper nor on TV the found of a woman´s corpse in Huron Street was announced. So for sure he would try it again...

Vicki clung to her furniture, trying to absorb a bit the pressure on her wound, but she staggered through her hallway bent over. Any way she locked up the door, cussing for the umpteenth time that her house lacked of an elevator. At least Henry had one.

Down on the street she called for a cab. Never before the waiting time had felt like an eternity. When the cab finally came, she climbed in for the backseat. She clenched her teeth when she sank down with her hands clawing to the backrest of the front seat.

"Where to, please, Ma´m?"

"150 Bloor West/Avenue...Renaissance Plaza! The entrance is..." she gave the address with her voice almost being an inaudible whisper.

"On the backside...Cumberland Street...I know..." the driver replied with a smile. He shot her a view in his rear-view mirror. His passenger seemed not to be all too well, but he preferred to keep his mouth shut and pulled out from the sidewalk. Good luck, the drive won´t take long and Vicki looked out of the side window, where the flights were flying by. Not only her RP was a point that caused everything to be barely more than a big colored blur. Every few seconds her eyes almost closed and the waves of pain, which were running thru her upper body in short intervals were driving tears into her eyes. Her belly was a hell of hurt, burning and stinging with every intake of breath. Waves of emetic nausea were flushing through her stomach, threatened to fix in her throat.

When she would even start to puke here in the car...

**Renaissance Plaza, Bloor West**

Fortunately the cab driver stopped his car gently and Vicki was thankful for it. The gentle jar caused her to open her eyes suddenly. Had she fallen asleep though? But she was glad that they had reached her destination and the car stopped in front of the entrance in the Cumberland Street. Vicki paid him and very carefully she got out of the car to avoid crying out. She clung to the upper door frame, focusing the entrance to the lobby and went for it.

Every step was an effort. Leaden weights seemed to be hanging from her head and at her legs, pulling her down. The door opened in front of her and Vicki finally reached the reception desk, from which Greg, the doorman, smiled at her.

"Good evening, Ms. Nelson..." he saw her ash pale face. The smile died in his face, giving space to deep concern. "Ms. Nelson! Aren´t you well...?" He got up from his seat, about to give her a helping hand.

"Good evening, Greg. I...uhm..." she had to swallow down a choking knot, fixing herself with one hand to the desk. The large, elegant room of the lobby was wavering around her, her legs turned in wobbling jelly and she had to press her free hand on her mouth so she won´t vomit.

"God damn it! That damn scratch couldn´t cause such problems! Seconds long she fought for control, then she could breath again. She looked at Greg with her face being a mask of stone.

"Is Mr. Fitzroy at home?!"

"Yes, Ms. Nelson. Mr. Fitzroy wasn´t still down here...Do you need any help? Shall I call him down, Ms. Nelson...?" He could see that her face had turned from pale to a rather grayish-green color, that matched the color of her eyes in an uncomfortable way. "Shall I get you a doctor? You are...!" His hand was hovering over the phone. But Vicki didn´t let him finish his question, shook her head no in a determined gesture.

"No, thank you, Greg. All okay...!" she pressed out and turned around, moving with effort through the glass doors which he opened for her, looking after her with a concerned expression on his face. She reached the elevators. One cabin was down in here and she entered it. The doors closed and she pushed the button with the fourteen. The cabin started with a gentle jar and Vicki, being alone in the cabin, let out a scream.

Henry had just gotten out of his bed. The whole last night he had tried to reach Vicki on her cell, but she hadn´t answered the call. Only her mailbox. Being full of concern, he walked through his rooms, stopping in front of the large windows and he dialed again.

It was her mailbox again. Henry cursed low under his breath.

What was going on with Vicki? Normally she answered at least, when he was calling. And such long time, one couldn´t be showering or be sleeping.

Anything had to be wrong altogether!

Henry dressed in a hoodie sweater and his gray wool coat, got his cellphone and his car keys, determined to drive to Vicki, to look what was going on. When he had the doorknob in hand, he heard the engines of the elevators when the cabin came up. His brows knitted and he listened, when the cabin doors opened on his floor. The heartbeat from one person. He sucked in the air.

Definitely Vicki!

He took his coat off again, with an expression of some certain relief on his face.

Vicki dragged herself through the hallway. 1405...1406... The 1407 seemed to be lying at the other end of the world today and she had to take hold on the door frame when she knocked at the door. The hallway seemed to whirl around her and she could barely see something, when the door was opened in front of her. When she carefully breathed, the shape of the figure in front of her cleared again.

"Hi, Henry!...Do you...have...visitor...?" Her voice was rather a stammering, as if had gotten sloshed. Henry skeptically knitted his brows.

"Hi, Vicki! Where have you been? I couldn´t reach you all the time!" Henry began when she was standing shakily in the door.

Anything was wrong with her!

Her heart was beating fast and hard, she looked pale like a corpse and she definitely smelled of...blood! Blood...did she have her menses? Naturally he could smell it on her when she had her Aunt Flow. But the smell of blood was too intensively, was covered by something else...smelling unclean.

"Vicki! What´s going on?!" he took her by her arm to steady her.

She was staring at him, her grayish-green eyes were covered by a veil of tears. Glistening.

"Henry...I...can I...come...in?!" Her words came stagnantly, her lower lip was trembling.

"You´re already in, Vicki! Forgotten?" The smile died in his fine features, when she made one, two wavering steps, her face suddenly turning paler as it had still been only seconds ago.

"Henry...I...ca..." The rest trailed off in a halfway choked, gurgling sound when the living-room dissolved in colored veils, then it turned dark around her...

Henry grabbed her by the shoulders with vampire speed, when Vicki gave of a choked sound. Her eyes rolled up into her skull, her knees gave way and she fell. Only his reflexes kept her body from touching ground, when she toppled over in his arms.

"Vicki?!" For a moment he was standing in his hallway with the load on his arms. Her weight meant nothing to him. He considered what to do best.

Where to?

The couch, the bed?

None of them seemed to be a good option, he thought. The smell which she emanated, told him that both possibilities weren´t the best ones. Vicki smelled to intensively of blood and so Henry decided for the kitchen, where he could place her on the large kitchen table.

Within seconds he was in the kitchen, shoving the fruit bag, that was lying there, down by her body. Mortal defilade, Henry thought when the bag fell down to the tiles with a thud. He got a cushion from his bedroom, placing it under Vicki´s head who was still unconsciously.

Henry´s eyes moved over the motionless body in front of him. Meanwhile a strong smell of blood was filling the air in the room. It made his hunger rising since he hadn´t feed yesterday evening and he forced the hunger back with an iron will, commanding the animal within him back behind the bars, though it was rattling at the bars of its cage. This wasn´t a meal-on-legs yet, this is Vicki...

...who definitely was not okay.

His nose was guiding him the way. Carefully he opened the zipper of her parka and after a fast look into her still closed eyes, he supported her shoulders with one arm and peeled her out of the thick jacket. He simply let the cloth drop to the ground, beside the bag of fruits. Under it she wore a pullover and a turtle-neck shirt. It was cold outside. Carefully he shoved his hands under the seams, shoving them upwards. His fingers opened the belt and the zipper of her jeans, then he slightly lifted Vicki´s hips and shoved the jeans down to her knees.

Under it, a thick layer of blood soaked gauze compresses came in sight, which she had fixed with adhesive tape. It looked halfway professionally, but didn´t help much.

"Oh Vicki...Crap! What have you done?" Henry cursed low under his breath, when he saw the bandages. Without hesitation he stripped her slip down to her thighs, to get free access to the injury. Fortunately Vicki was still unconsciously, but for how long...? For a long moment Henry looked down on her, then he turned around to the sink, washed his hands and then he carefully pulled off the bandage.

What came in sight, made even him groan in some shock.

A wound of some five inches was running diagonally over her upper belly. Her skin was thickly encrusted with blood and as far as he could see on first view, the edges of the wound were swollen and the area around it was highly reddened. He would be able to see more, once he would have cleaned that up first. Henry hurried to his bathroom, opened the closet and searched through the first aid kit, that he had bought by Vicki´s recommendation after the demon´s attack. There wasn´t that much. With compresses, adhesive tape, scissors and gauze bandages he came back to the kitchen. He didn´t own a scalpel. Henry searched through Vicki´s shoulder bag for a substitute tool and found Vicki´s Swiss Army knife, whose blades were way sharper than one of his kitchen knifes. He hold the blade in a candle flame, disinfecting it and put the knife down on a fresh gauze compress.

He gave Vicki´s face a fast view, just for control if she would be still unconsciously. Henry didn´t feel certain how to go when she would wake up in the wrongest moment when he was cleaning up her wound. Ain´t that good to knock her out and he didn´t have any anesthetics which would be sufficiently to treat her. All he had, were some ibuprofen tablets, if one of his visitors would get a headache.

"So well...or not, Vicki! I don´t know what happened there...but let´s see to get that any better again..." he mumbled more to himself than to her, when he watched more closely at the wound, which was running over her belly as an ugly, spreading cut...as far as he could see now. Henry was even turned to the work plate of the kitchen board, when a deep groan made him twitch and turn around. Immediately he was at Vicki´s side and he saw that her lids were fluttering. Groans were coming from her lips and her fingers curved, trying to feel for her belly that was now burning like fire when plain air stung to the open wound.

Henry grabbed for her wrist, stopping her hand midair.

Vicki was drifting up, she gasped dull and the fog around her was thinning out, only to be exchanged by blinding light from above. She groaned and the groan almost turned into a scream, when she tried to move and burning pain shot through her abdominal wall.

Where...where...am...I?

Hospital?...So bright...it was so bright here and she closed her eyes again. Anybody was breathing beside her and a face bent over her.

"Do...Doc...?" she stammered. A slight shake of a head.

"No! It´s me! Henry!" a male voice answered which was very familiar to her.

"Where...where am I? I...God, that hurts!"

"You´re at my home, in my kitchen, Vicki! You´ve simply dropped into my arms in my hallway..." Henry stroked her forehead, knitting his brows and he looked into her eyes.

Her forehead was way too warm and her eyes were suspiciously glistening.

God in heaven! Good Lord!

Vicki was in a fever. A high risen fever.

And Henry knew by long experience what that was meaning. Vicki didn´t only have a deep wound. She was suffering from a wound infection!

The last thing he needed right now!

Vicki was mumbling anything what even he could barely understand.

"Vicki? Vicki...?!" he waved with one hand in front of her face to test for her ability to respond, trying to find out how awake she was. For sure, she was consciously, but her eyes, which were glistening in a way he had never before seen on her, were erratically moving...from his hand to the table, over her belly and her view got fixed on her lower belly. If any could even speak of a view...

"He...Henry! What are ya doing? No! Please not...!" she stammered when she got aware that she was almost naked and that her slip wasn´t in the position, where it normally belonged to.

"Easy, easy, Vicki...stay calm...I´ll take care of your wound where to..." he tried to cover his true concerns with a smile: "...I had to get down most of your clothing. And I´m afraid..."

"You´re afraid of what...?" Her voice was weak and trembling now.

"I´ve nothing of effective analgesics here I might give you, Vicki and I´m afraid that it´ll hurt very much when I have to clean that..." With one hand he stroked along her temple to calm her down. Henry was aware of, that whatever he would say, it won´t be able to prepare Vicki of how strong the pain would be, when he would drive the blade into the inflamed, sore wound. When he even didn´t know yet how deep it would be.

Vicki´s eyes were widening, her fever fogged brain tried to work with Henry´s information. Henry was...he talked nonsense...

"There...that...that only needs...a new...bandage..." she whispered in a begging undertone. Vicki´s mind vigorously fought against the imagination that Henry was about to do any surgery on her. He can not...he won´t...No! She...I won´t be able to stand that...! Her mind revolted and in a desperate movement she tried to roll off from what she was lying on. Whatever it was...

Vicki screamed when a glowing pain was shooting through her belly with the force of a sledgehammer. There were hands at her, when Henry grabbed for her fast, fixing her arms and keeping her from falling off the table. He hold her down on the table with all strength, while he had to take care of not causing her more pain than she already had.

"No, please...Henry...I...I can´t anymore..." she begged, clinging her right hand around his forearm.

"I know, that this is to become hurting very much, but I´m afraid...you and me, we don´t have another choice. It´s really not clear to me, why you didn´t go to a doctor or in a hospital with such a wound..." His hand was lying at her temple, his thumb moved gently over her forehead, wiping the hair out of her face. Henry bent over her, looking into her grayish-green eyes, which were filling with tears, when the pain was running like fire through her belly, her upper body and up to her chops.

"Can go...in...no hospi...tal..." she mumbled. She fought for breath, her heartbeat was filling the kitchen with its pounding rhythm and her fingers were clinging around Henry´s wrist with painful intensity when a new wave of pain were flooding her, caused by her sudden, uncoordinated move. Henry looked at her, feeling how much she was suffering, but he had to know what had happened to her.

"Who, Vicki...who was it? Why can´t you go to any doctor...? Vicki...?" She was drifting on the edge of her consciousness, her breath was hard and fast. She must have lost a terrifying amount of blood as flat and fast as her pulse was. He knew by own, long experience the signs of a severe blood loss. Eventually he sustained on human blood...

And the wound didn´t look as being caused by a simple, stupid accident...

From long experience Henry knew how wounds were looking which were the results of fights. Position and characteristics of the wound were indicating, that Vicki had been attacked by anybody with a rather sharp weapon, the more a hit or cut, led from left down to right above. The way as if one was operating a sword with backhand when the attacker was a right hander. Henry had fought enough battles in his mortal life to evaluate it.

"Vicki...! Hello! Vicki!...Don´t slip off! C´mon Vicki!" he urged at her, when her eyes closed for a moment. Her heart was pounding, when she gasped hard.

"Can...not...that guy...me...killing..." she brought out and Henry´s hands were at her temples when he tried to put her stammering together, to drain any sense from it.

"Alas...you´re meaning...this guy...whoever it is, would kill you when you´d go in a hospital? Do I get that right, Vicki?" His hand was at her temple, his eyes which had turned black yet, were looking intently in hers. He felt hot rage rising in him.

The Yes was almost inaudible. Vicki´s lids closed with a groan and her hand closed around his arm, when she had the feeling to roll off the table under a wave of emetic dizziness. The face above her was dissolving and she fought hard for breath, trying to stay at the surface that became blurred, when the blood loss threatened to pull her down.

"Vicki! WHO has it been? Who has mangled you so?" he urged at her in the hope to get an answer before she would graciously faint again.

"Guy. Have...data...I...he has...me...God, that hurts!" Her fingers shoved in direction of the wound and Henry could even keep her from feeling for the wound, that had started to bleed again when she had forcefully thrown herself around.

"No, Vicki! Don´t touch it...I´m taking care of it...!" Gently he pulled her hand away, looking at her: "You have data files...okay! You´ve taken a new case, as I´m suggesting...Why didn´t you tell that Detective Celluci, giving the case to his hands, when it develops that way?" His voice was insistent.

"Mike...Mike doesn´t...know about it..." Vicki weakly pressed out .

"What? What, your detective doesn´t know about it? Good Lord, Vicki, this whosoever almost kills you and Celluci doesn´t know of!" Henry´s voice got angrily and stunned. Why the heck doesn´t the detective care about when Vicki gets in trouble? Does he only care about Vicki, when he get her laid? He felt when his eyes turned bled black and his fangs extended.

"Mike...Mike doesn´t know of it, cuz...he...he is not here...Is...in Van...couver..." she brought out in a whisper.

"In Vancouver?!"

"Yup...training...on job...He has been waiting for it...so long, Henry..." Vicki tried to defend Mike.

"Ouch! And then you don´t tell neither him nor _me_, when you accept a new case. At that one that turns out to be so dangerous!" Henry looked at her and he didn´t know what to think of it.

"Do you have such little trust in me, Vicki, that you tell _me_ at least! I´ve told you more than once, that you shall call me when you´re gonna need help, Vicki! You know that I´m always there for you!" He grabbed for another gauze compress and tried to suck up the blood that was soaking from the wound.

"Henry...I thot...that is just a...normal case...I didn´t know..." she tried to shrug off his objection and she groaned, when a new wave of nausea rolled up in her and she felt her heart beating faster. Heaven...she felt so dizzy! The kitchen whirled around her and she desperately closed her eyes. From her First Aid education at the Police Academy she knew, that a fast, flat pulse and nausea and a feeling of sickness were the signs of a shock, caused by large loss of blood and/or liquids.

_How nice when one can diagnose oneself with it, Detective Nelson_!

"Okay, well now! Whatsoever...You´re in here, Victoria and I´ll look what I can do for you, when I might not get you to a doctor or a hospital." Henry mumbled and placed the Swiss Army knife and the bandage materials in position. The low metal sounds made Vicki turn her face to the side where Henry was working. Her eyes were widening with fear and her heart was beating faster when she saw the instruments beside her. Henry heard it when her heartbeat was speeding up,her scent was changing, when the fear was boiling up in her.

He knew that he had to bring...to get her under control, so that she would become calmer. He wouldn´t be able to keep her calmly down and to treat her wound at the same time. When she would be throwing around by fear or would try to roll down the table, then neither for him nor for her this would be of any help.

God, am I mad...? How could I even...in here...? Vicki thought, when she felt panic rising. She was hurt, she was stinking of blood like a living bait. Henry is a vampire! And she was lying half naked in his condo, bleeding, on the edge to unconsciousness. When he would take advantage of it, going...to attack her, she won´t even be able to defend herself against him. Henry was many times stronger and faster than her and she doubted it, that she would make it to the hallway at least.

Not to talk about, that her belly would put a spoke in her wheel... And every so little move let her feel dizzy. Crap, she must have lost insanely much blood, when her circulation was acting bitchy.

Henry could see that she was worse than tensed.

He had to clean this wound and he had to do as fast as possible to prevent a sepsis, because already yet she was in a high risen fever. A sign, that her body was desperately fighting against the infection in the wound. And without narcotics this would become damn painful, this he knew.

He grabbed under Vicki´s chin with one hand, turning her face with an only pretended smile, away from the viewing direction to his surgery tools. Anyway he had to get Vicki so far, that she would trust him with it and won´t go nuts with fear. Normally she was immune against his vampire tricks, but when she would once, only this once, give in to him...then it would make this way easier. For both of them.

"Vicki, you know that I´ve no other choice than to clean your wound! Otherwise you´ll get a sepsis..." If you already don´t have that, he thought be he didn´t pronounce that. "And I had honestly hoped that you would stay unconscious as long as I´ll do this..."

"Probably I´ll be fainting again when it´ll...hurt too much..." her vice was trailing away, even when she tried hard to let her voice sound firmly and calm, but the imagination of surgery without any anesthetics seemed to constrict her throat. She already had been lying the whole night before and the whole day long in her bed with burning, throbbing pain, always in the irrational suggestion, that it would become any better already, when she only would be waiting. Until she finally realized that she won´t get that managed all alone, unaided.

Vicki, the tough P.I.

But now she simply couldn´t anymore...

"I´ll be as careful as possible and I´ll work fast..." Henry knew that, whatever he would say, it won´t change the fact that he would have to cause her pain, And he felt how near to the edge she already was...

"Mhm...I believe...that won´t help much, when...oh God, Henry...I...I can´t anymore..." she whimpered, when a new wave of pain seemed to rip her upper body to parts. Her thighs jerked, when the pain was surging up and her voice died away. Henry saw how much she fought to stay consciously. Carefully he grabbed for her twitching feet, closing his hands gently around her ankles and slowly shoving her legs up.

"Easy, easy, be calm...let it up, Vicki...when you´ll angle your legs, it´ll relax your abdominal wall...That´s soothing the pain a bit..." Henry knew about the aspects of a human body by long lived experience like almost nobody else. He practically knew everything about muscles, veins and nerves and proper techniques to relax. Henry looked into her eyes, consciously searching the eye contact.

"Vicki...please! Trust me..." his eyes turned dark and his voice got this dark timbre, which had a hypnotic effect on most beings.

Don´t you try your vampire tricks on me, Vicki reluctantly thought.

Henry felt her reluctance. With one hand he stroked her temple and her hot cheek. "Vicki, I don´t wanna put force on you..."

"What...you royal highness...also...might barely...ahh, that hurts...barely can" Vicki protested. Would the situation have been another one, Henry might have smiled at her persisting stubbornness, but it was too seriously for that by now.

"Vicki, I´ll have to cause you pain for sure, and the only possibility to make this more bearable for you, is when you´ll allow it this once, that I´ll make use of my compelling skills on you. So that I can soothe your pain a bit, at least."

"I...I can´t this, Henry..." she whimpered.

"You can Vicki! Simply trust me. Look at me and concentrate only on my eyes and my voice, Vicki...please! I only want to help you..." Vicki had come to him for refuge, for shelter...out of her free will, as nobody had brought her to him by force. She had trusted him before and it could only be cause of her fever and her pain, that now she recoiled from further help.

"I...I´m afraid, Henry! I´ve...fear..." she pressed out.

Henry nodded: "I know...trust me, Vicki and simply let go..." His voice was soft but determined, had changed to the dark timbre he used to influence his _target_ _subjects_, when it came to feeding. When she would deny him...

Vicki gave off an agonized groan. All inside her was writhing against it, but the pain that was running through her belly like searing iron in short intervals, made her give up wearily. He only wants to help you. Henry only wants to help me! She hammered into her reasonable mind, repeating it like a prayer wheel.

With a last sigh she gave in. She tried to fix her view on the wide, black pupils, on the lips, which moved with a low voice and let her see his extended fangs when she tried to completely concentrate on his voice...

"Easy now...you´ll stay calm, Vicki...just relax...relax..." His voice was dark, determined. He looked deep into Vicki´s eyes, saw, that she fixed his view, her glistening eyes were slightly veiled. He couldn´t definitely decide, if it was caused by him or by her fever. He laid his hands on her belly and she twitched: "Let it up, you are...completely...relaxed...That does not hurt yet, Vicki...!" He felt when her tensed abdominal wall relaxed a bit, as far as this was possible with such an injury.

"Yes...you´re doing that pretty good, Vicki...just deep...just calm, I´m staying with you...You won´t be afraid...no fear...no pain..." His voice went on, coming down to a low, soothing level that was closing around her mind, vibrating in her head and her ears.

When she seemed to relax, he reached for the knife on the kitchen board behind him and began to remove the first, thick bloody scabs. Vicki groaned deeply and in a hurry he looked into her eyes.

"Stay just calm...I´ll be very careful!"

Henry was aware that he couldn´t tilt her pain, but could only soothe them. For that the injury was too severe.

The tension in her belly muscles was diminishing. Under the blood encrustations...

...yellowish pus was appearing.

_To be continued_


	4. Chapter 3 I need you so Part two

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 3.1**_

_Sometimes there is a chance to choose which decision we´ll make, but sometimes life doesn´t give us a chance...and one has to take matters in his own hands._

**I need you so... Part Two **

Henry cursed low under his breath. Crap! That was all he would have needed! The whole wound was pus-filled! Vicki, my dear, you must be in a helluva pain!

He tried to go forward as swift as possible, scratching off blood and pus, using the tweezers where ever possible, to peel off the blood encrustations. Vicki was groaning under his hands, her left hand clung to the table edge for hold so hard, that her knuckles turned white. Her right hand clung to Henry´s hip. She wouldn´t handicap him, but he felt when her fingers dug into his side with the force of the pain when she groaned loudly and she was tensing completely. He stopped immediately and bent over her. With one hand he pressed gauze on the wound to suck up the blood, that was now dripping from the wound again. On one hand it was washing out the pus, on the other hand Vicki was losing blood again. And it massively hindered his free sight to the depth and the extend of the wound.

Vicki convulsively clenched her teeth, tried to concentrate on her breathing, but she barely managed it. Henry shot her a fast view, turned back to the wound. Then Vicki´s mouth opened and she cried out, trying to buckle in a reflex.

"Calm! Stay calm, Vicki! Keep down...Please!" he looked in her eyes. "Just easy...you´ll keep lying calmly...No pain, Vicki!" His voice was dark and compelling.

She stared at him from eyes which were full of tears, her breath came in hard and pressed out blows, when he pressed her down on the table with gentle force.

"That´s no good idea now, Vicki..."

"I...I´m believing...you...are right..." She turned her head to the side and an emetic wave of dizziness rolled up, causing sickness in her belly and her stomach cramped, the sickness mixing with the pain in her upper belly.

"Le...let me...around!" Vicki choked and in panic she tried to shove Henry´s hand to the side. Henry stared at her in concern and irritation.

"What´s it, Vicki? What´s going on...keep lying..."

"I...I feel...queasy! Oh God...I´m believing, I...I must puke!" Vicki choked when she rolled over to one side with her last remaining strength. Her face was even paler, as it had been before, with a shade of grayish-green over it.

Henry let the gauze drop, embracing her face and then he turned Vicki around carefully. When she would vomit yet... His eyes searched for anything to hold under her face. With vampire speed he grabbed for a bucket, which was standing in the lower compartment of his kitchen board, turning Vicki around so that her head was lying at the edge of the table.

"Breathe deeply, Vicki...breathe calmly through your nose...You won´t have to vomit now...It´s all good, breathe...yes, calmly..." His dark voice had lowered to a convincing mumbling and his hand was stroking her temple and he could feel how much she was trembling. Vicki swallowed hard when she tried to keep the contents of her stomach down. Saliva was dripping from the corner of her mouth, the cramps in her stomach were coming in waves. She fought for breath and after an fast intake of air, she lost the fight. Henry helped her, when her stomach emptied, looking in concern at the bucket. This attack of vomiting had enlarged the loss of liquids...

After a couple of minutes she became calmer, her convulsive swallowing and breathing subsided, when the cramps subsided and with it the nausea. Vicki let out a gasping breath and Henry laid his hand on her belly.

"Any better, Vic...ya feeling better now?" she heard his voice and she wanted to nod, but then she desisted from it. "Yes..." she weakly replied.

"Okay...relax, Vicki...I´m turning you on your back again, so we´ll get that finished here..." he whispered in a low, convincing voice. His eyes were dark and Vicki let herself sink into the dark depths of his eyes, feeling when he turned her on her back. Her heart was beating wildly, pumping the blood violently and too fast through her body. It dripped down her side in a small line, building a little pool on the table´s surface.

The intensive scent let the hunger rise in Henry and with a suppressed growl he pushed the animal back. He cursed it now, that he hadn´t been out yesterday evening to feed his fill. Henry had it under control, though, but it was more difficult, when he was hungry. Additionally the amount of blood was hindering him in controlling the wound ground.

"You´ll stay completely relaxed and you´ll be lying quietly, Vicki! No fear...no pain...stay calm..." he demanded when he laid one hand over her eyes. Her body was giving off a glowing heat. After a last look into her face he bent his head to her belly. Vicki slightly twitched, when he laid his lips on the wound.

Carefully he started to suck, licking up the blood from the wound.

Vicki couldn´t see anything because his hand on her eyes was blocking her sight, but she felt when his lips and his tongue moved over the wound.

What...what did he want? What was he doing? Henry even didn´t think to get to a damn little snack, it shot through her completely fogged mind. It didn´t hurt, not directly, but then she felt when his tongue pushed deeper, pressing against the sore flesh to divide it. That was no feeding, only a cleaning. Vicki moaned under him, when it hurt.

Henry spat the blood out

"Hen...Henry..that...fucking hurts!" Vicki whimpered. Shit...what was he doing here? Her feet twitched helplessly on the table, when she felt his tongue driving through the wound. That wasn´t comfortable anymore like his lips before, it was only hurting badly.

Henry was aware that he caused her pain, but the coagulant in his saliva would slow down the bleeding, perhaps stemming it, what would reduce her blood loss and give him better sight to the wound ground.

This, the blood loss, the fever and the pain...no wonder, that she finally had simply toppled into his arms.

The bleeding subsided for now. Henry wiped over his mouth with the back of his hand, spreading the wound edges so wide as it was possible. He inspected the depth and the extend. Damn deep and irregular shape. He asked himself, which kind of weapon this could have been. A knife would have caused a clean, even cut, would have gone deeper though. A knife could have slashed through Vicki´s guts by the position of the wound. He felt her fingers painfully digging in his hip and she cried out, when he kept the edges spread, for mere seconds only and then he let go.

"It´s all good, Vicki...all good. It´s over already...I know that this pretty hurts at all..." he soothed her and his hand stroked over her belly, gently, soft. "I know that I´m demanding a great deal of you, Vicki!"

"When...when are...you ready...?" she helplessly groaned. Vicki didn´t believe that she would be able to endure it much longer.

"Soon, Vicki! We´re ready in a moment. Then I´ll bind that and then I´ll bring you over in the bed..." He dabbed the surrounding area of the wound. "Can you stand that for a moment longer or shall I make a pause?" he calmly asked with darkened eyes and voice.

"Dunno..." Vicki stammered. When it came to her feelings, then she was definitely at the end of the road: "...must...must you...work on...it...any more...?" she tried to keep her voice calm and firm, trying not to let him notice, that she was shitting bricks. This here was pretty harder than she had been imaging. Everything you could imagine, it would be worse... Vicki could read it in his face how sorry he was about causing her pain. His face was stern like stone, when he was now fixing the wound edges with calm determination, before he covered it with a couple layers of gauze compress.

Vicki groaned, when a new wave of dizziness was surging up in her. She tried to breathe deeply, but she couldn´t. Henry felt when she was fighting to keep control, but she was so exhausted, that she was always drifting off again. Her eyes fell shut and her fingers were convulsively clinging to the table´s edges, because she had the constant feeling to roll off the table, what was nonsense as long as she kept lying quietly.

Then, very slowly the fog of black, gray and white was ebbing away, clearing...but not completely. Her eyes were burning and the feeling of his hand on her forehead seemed still to be there, despite he had already taken his hand away any time earlier.

"I...I see...nothing..." Vicki mumbled almost inaudible. Where was...?

Then she felt that Henry gently shoved the earpieces over her ears, placing the nose saddle on her nose when he put the glasses back on her nose, which he must have taken off, when he had covered her eyes with one hand.

"Better now, Vicki? Stay lying calmly...easy...easy...it´s all good..." he urged her. Nothing was good at all, he said to himself inwardly. Her breath had slightly calmed down, when the intensive pain had subsided, but her heart was beating hard and fast in her feverish body and Henry was glad, that he could bind her wound now. When he fixed the thick layer of gauze compress, he looked into her face. Her beautiful, well-proportioned face was marked from the strain of the last minutes and she had her eyes closed, was breathing fast and through half opened lips.

For some seconds this was the single sound in the kitchen, then he stripped down the bloodied gloves, throwing them into the sink and bent closely over Vicki.

"Vicki!...Vicki...?" he called her. With a groan she opened her lids, staring at him from glistening eyes.

"Wha...what...?" Vicki mumbled in a low voice. Henry stroked her forehead, her cheeks.. Her skin was hot...too hot under his fingers. With his thumb he wiped a strand of hair from her face, moving in a calming manner over the skin. Henry smiled slightly. Not because he felt up to it, but in an attempt to calm her down a bit, to give her some confidence.

"So...diz...schy..." she mumbled muzzy.

"I know, Vic. You´ve lost a lot of blood."

She stared at him: "I...have...what...?"

"Lost blood and it wasn´t even little..." her view told him, what she thought of it. "No! Not by me!" Henry lifted his hands in a gesture of innocence.

"You...are...a vampire!" Vicki grunted. It should sound harshly, but her voice lacked of the usual sharpness.

"...who knows exactly, when and with whom he can allow himself to drink from! I´d be mad when I would feed on you in your current condition." Henry looked at her with a glance that was lying between consternation and pity.

"You´ve been...at my wound! I...I felt it! How ya were licking...at it!" Vicki sounded pissed off. What´s going on with her, Henry thought. Has Celluci put flakes in her head, had he already infected her with his vampire panic?

"I´ve cleaned the wound, cuz it had been bleeding so strongly, that I couldn´t see anything. I´m immune against diseases though, but ya know that I won´t feed on the sick or weakened..." Henry angrily replied.

Vicki was severely hurt, already suffering from high risen fever, which he could state without measurement. Probably she had fear, what was indeed understandable. Vicki wasn´t used to be weak and vulnerable. And this situation seemed to drive her into a defensive demeanor. Preventive defense.

Henry bent over her, laid his hand on her forehead, winning controls back when he pushed back the anger and he forced his voice to a calm tone. When he would agree to her panic, the situation would slip from his hands and he would only encourage Vicki´s fear. She had trusted him before, though. But how to calm a sick woman who additionally was immune to his manipulative skills: Before she might only have given in, because it could soothe the strong pain.

"Vicki, I know that this isn´t easy for you...but you´ll have to trust me a bit! I only wanna help you and it is you, who has come to me..." his fingers were gliding to her temple, gently stroking over it.

God, her skin is so hot...!

He asked himself what he should do, when the fever won´t subside but would rise instead. Actually Vicki was in need of a doctor, urgently. Only...who? She seemed to have the reasonable fear, that any connection outwards, might lead her attacker to her again.

Vicki tried, the emphasis was focusing on trying, to look at Henry. Her eyes were always falling shut again and his voice sounded gentle, not angrily. Probably he really wanted to help her.

"Vicki...are you still able to...?"

A weakly mumbled yes.

"Good! Vicki, do you know, who has attacked you and first of all; with which weapon?" he asked especially slowly and articulated. She seemed to have difficulties to follow him, which was no wonder in her condition.

"A guy...I guess..." Pause. "I´ve...data files...company...The boss...he has...a suspect...Must have...stirred up a...hornet´s nest. I...it all was fast...I wanted...to go to...boss and then...that guy...got on me...in the street..." Pause. She took a deep breath and her face tensed when new pain was burning through her belly. Henry was patiently waiting.

"I´ve tried...oh God, tried to...defend me...He has thrust...at me...with anything...My belly...so much blood!"

Henry nodded, putting the fragments together to get sense into them.

As it was looking, Vicki had stirred up somebody in his unduly business and the man had felt that threatened by her, that he committed an attempted murder.

"Which...weapon...? Vicki!" Henry looked at her, speaking slowly in the hope that her brain could cope with his words. She stared at him. "Weapon, Vicki! He repeated gently but with soft urge.

"Any...thing bright...curved..." Vicki brought out weakly, her voice was trailing away and Henry hoped, that she´d not slip back into unconsciousness again, before he would find out more.

"Bright color? Curved? Anything like...a Khukri, Nepalese curved dagger?" he suggested.

"No. Knife! More...like...like no...metal..."

"What...then? Obsidian? Stone?" Henry asked what came in his mind of non-metallic blades.

"Nope...more like...Claw...?"

Henry twitched inwardly and a cold shudder was running down his spine.

Claw? Talon?

Had Vicki...once again...been attacked by a demon. He had gone through this himself...on his own body.

"And it had been a man? A human, I mean?" Henry hooked in.

"Yes...Man...with a...ski mask..." she hawed. The confirmation was a relief for Henry.

"Okay!" Thank the Lord no demon!

"He had anything...like a claw in his hand...like from...dinosaur...T-Rex or...such a velo thing..." Vicki stammered with some effort.

"You´re meaning a Velociraptor. So a claw or talon from an animal...uhm..." Henry thought it over. Had the attacker attempted to pretend a demon attack? Had he used a claw, to let it appear that the demon from spring had returned? It was possible. Especially when he knows, that Vicki is also investigating in the paranormal. Then an attacker, who wasn´t to be caught with normal methods or somebody of whom nobody would believe, that he was existing, was quite ideal to distract from the true murderer...

And an animal´s claw would also explain the shape and depth of the wound, the irregular, looking like torn edges of it. And the pus in the wound as a claw was full of germs.

_To be continued _


	5. Chapter 4 Unwanted involvement Part One

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 4**_

_Sometimes there is a chance to choose which decision we´ll make, but sometimes life doesn´t give us a chance...and Henry has to make a step into a direction, he would never have chosen by free will..._

**Unwanted involvement - Part One**

"Okay, Vic...I´ll bring you over into my bedroom now. You´ll be lying better in my bed. The kitchen table was a necessity, this is comfort..."

His bedroom! The last and one time she´d been lying there when she had watched over him aafter the demon attack...

"I´ll...mess...that up, yours..." she weakly protested.

Henry shook his head no: "There won´t get anything stained. And if so! Don´t even think about it, Vicki..." he warded her objection off. "Walking would be rather less your option and I won´t expect that from you too. Do you feel able to place your arms around my shoulders...?" he bent over her and when her hands were shakily moving up, he placed her arms on her shoulders, taking her up on his arms and then he carefully carried her over to his bedroom. With his shoulders he pushed the door wings open, towing her carefully down on the bed sheet, what she quit with a sharp groaning.

"I´m sorry, Vicki...it´s good yet..." Henry reached over her, pulled by a blanket and gently spread it over her body.

"Try to sleep a bit, Vicki...I´m next door...in hearing range." He smiled. Hearing range, that meant in his case, that he might hear the lowest sound over a large distance.

Her lips moved, what obviously meant a Yes, then she closed her eyes with a groan, tried to relax in the hope to find some sleep. For once she would be safe here...

When it came to the pain: No.

When it came to circulation: Yes. When one might see fainting as a kind of sleep option.

Henry watched Vicki for a long moment, then he went back to the living-room, getting his cellphone in his hand without even mentioning it consciously. Hesitatingly he looked at his cell, then he went over to his working place, sitting down on the desk´s edge and he started to search through his phone list with his left hand.

Finally he found the call number he was searching for:

Augustus

With a sigh he dialed.

After a while a familiar voice answered his call.

"It´s Augustus here! Henry Fitzroy I suggest...Am I right...?"

"Yes, it´s me, Henry! Good evening, Augustus..." Henry´s voice didn´t sound rather optimistic.

"Henry, dear friend, what is up?...Any trouble with your guest?" Augustus sounded concerned.

"No, not any trouble...the thing is...well a bit more tricky..." Henry began.

"And I can help you, I hope..."

"I hope so, Augustus. I know that you normally won´t give names and call numbers, but if there are problems with visitors...But I´m under some pressure...!"

"What has happened, Henry?"

Henry took a deep breath.

To beg for help, to beg for _such help_...that was the hardest thing to ask from him. As far as he could remember, he had never done that before. Not as long as since he owned a fixed territory.

"So...I have an acquaintance. A mortal woman..."

"And you´re loving her..."

"Well, I like her very much, so far for it...But...I have her lying here, she´s a private eye and she´s hiding in here as she has come to me severely hurt, so a suspect won´t find her, who has tried to stab her."

"That sounds very, very bad, Henry..." Henry could hear the pity from Augustus´ voice.

"So it is! And you´ve indicated that _my guest_ is a private detective!"

"Won´t you both, won´t you better go to the police? That´s a case for the homicide department!" Augustus warned him.

"I know the detective who´s responsible there. Let´s say...I don´t trust him unconditionally. Not that he´s involved in this crime, but as a mortal..."

"Mhhm!" Henry knew this typical Mhhm from Augustus, could exactly imagine his face, could imagine how the man was thinking it over thoroughly.

"Well..." was following it.

"Augustus! I don´t much time for trying it out! When I...when we...won´t find the attacker fast, he´ll try it soon again! So, to make this short, Augustus: I need the name and his call number. I need help from somebody who has experience as a P.I. Normally I would search around alone, but I´ve friends to be protected so they won´t end up on his target!"

Tony, Coreen, Betty.

He couldn´t expose them to the danger, couldn´t risk it, that the attacker might get on them. When all had started with Vicki´s investigations and her data files, then there was more behind it than an employee who was betraying his company.

Cause of simple defalcation one won´t immediately kill someone.

Henry had the very bad feeling, that Vicki had stumbled into a way larger affair than only rousing a petty criminal.

For a long while he didn´t hear anything else from the other end of the connection than intakes of breath. Then, when he was about to ask for (Augustus was still there what he naturally could hear) his dialog partner reacted.

"So, well...I´ll make an exception for you, cuz I know you since a real long time and I know, that you won´t make crap of it!"

"Augustus, I really know to appreciate it! I would him...search on my own, but I don´t have time for it. As far as I know, he can...but for the night, also move around at daytime. And I have only the time between sunset and sunrise! I don´t have time to search Toronto for him all nights long to consult him..." Henry´s voice had become more urgent and it became more difficult for him to keep calm.

Vicki is in danger...and he never had an _other_, a vampire, a being of his kind...who was only tolerated to stay in _his city_...begged for help. When he had to tolerate somebody for a certain time, then he kept distance as much as even possible. The thought alone of another vampire in his territory was enough to drive him nuts already.

That even were the instincts of his species.

Chase the other one away or kill him!

"So, Henry! His name is Mick St. John and you can reach him mobile under 001 213-480-22..." Henry hastily wrote down the call number. "But I can´t give you any guarantee how he´ll react on your call...when he hears, who is calling him..."

I ain´t too! Henry thought and swallowed down a growl, that was building up deep in his throat.

"I suggest, when both of us will be pulling together, so that we won´t go for each other´s throat..." Henry grunted.

"Henry! St. John isn´t Christina! He belongs to a species, who..." Augustus had to grin. "...lives in packs in Los Angeles..."

"In packs?! Augustus, we are no wolves...!" Henry sounded insulted.

"But sometimes you´re acting up like that! But what I wanna say by this: St. John isn´t territorial. Over there almost hundred vampires are living peacefully together. He doesn´t want your territory! He´s just working on a case."

"That you´ve said before..."

Henry felt deep inside old instincts firing up, which he would have to fight down. For Vicki´s sake!

"So Henry...please behave like adults. It´s you who wants his help. I trust you in this case, otherwise I won´t give you his contact data. As I´ve learned to know him, he´s an easy to get along with guy..."

_You are, in all respect, no vampire, Augustus!_

"I´ll think of it, Augustus! And thank you very much at once...! I really appreciate it, that you trust me with that."

"So you´ve always been keeping by the rules, Henry! Cause of this. And because I already know you for so long... I wish you much success, Henry! And may the lady get better soon, even though we haven´t met yet."

"Thank you, I´ll be forwarding it. Good night, Augustus!" Henry replied with a thankful voice.

"Good night, Henry!"

When the connection ended, Henry kept his cell in his hand for some seconds, until he became aware that Augustus had given his good bye. Thousand thoughts were circling in his mind and he felt when he inwardly trembled. In wrath of the unknown, who had dared it to attack Vicki...his Vicki..., who had meant so much to him since the first moment.

Sure...he still hadn´t..._have_ her. Always when he had made gently attempts to get near to her, she shunned him. But maybe she needed simply some time. A vampire didn´t belong to the everyday acquaintances...

And the imagination, to be forced to explicitly beg an opponent/other/intruder/only-tolerated one for help, let him tremble in his deepest core with anger. His mind was spoon-feeding him all these arguments, which Augustus had listed; That the other one wasn´t up for his territory and was only a guest in own business and all the rest of it.

But the instinct in his veins let him attack or shun if possible.

And all of this won´t be possible yet, when this St. John would be coming over here. Or wherever the would have to meet to work together. His centuries old instincts meant him to hunt, to fight, to kill.

Instincts, the other one might completely lack of, when he won´t feel any intention to conquer a territory or to fight for it.

Henry´s eyes darkened and he felt his fangs drop. With a deep growl he locked his phone book shut, shoving the note with the call number in his pocket and then he smashed his fist onto his desk. It didn´t really help, but he felt relieved, even when now he had to collect all his pencils and pens which had spread over the table, when he had beaten on it with full force.

He closed his eyes, taking some deep breaths. Yet he needed some distraction. And anything between his teeth, which had retracted again now.

What brought up the next problem.

He couldn´t leave Vicki alone...

And he couldn´t call one of his meal-on-legs in. The bedroom was occupied and a quickie on the sofa...with one of the girls. A No-Go.

As the only solution, the young man came to his mind. Those, who Vicki had picked up on the street and whom he had taken care of a bit.

Tony Foster.

Young, gangling guy, tousled hair, always a grin in his face.

Tony was eking out a living as a hustler in the Toronto scene since some years. He had only started this to make money, not for himself, but for his father, who was an alcohol addict. Money at home meant beer at home. And beer at home meant, that he´d let Tony at peace. That had gone until Tony had been fed up with it and had gone on the run, with barely age sixteen. Vicki had picked him up from a park bench in an icy cold night, on which he might have frozen to death probably.

Another one with father issues!

Henry took his cellphone over to the bedroom.

There was only a single light switched on, on one of the nightstands, which he had almost dimmed down. Even enough light to see anything, which he didn´t really need. It was more of a gentle orientation help for Vicki, when she would wake up, preventing her to wake up in less known rooms and in complete darkness.

Silently he moved to the bed´s side, bending over Vicki.

He could immediately see that Vicki wasn´t sleeping. Her breath was coming in hard and pressed gasps, fastened by the fever. Carefully he laid his hand at the pulse point of her throat. Her pulse was flat and fast, typical sigh of her large blood loss.

"Vicki...!" he softly addressed her in a low voice.

Vicki mumbled something, then she groaned and opened her eyes. She needed a moment until she got it, where she was.

"Hen...ry..." Henry gently stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers.

"Henry...it...it shitty...hurts! I...I´ve...such pain...please! Help me!...Please...!" she whimpered.

"I don´t have any meds here, Vic..."

Breathing. Groans.

"Then...Phar...macy...I...I can´t...nmore..."

Henry nodded to her. "I´m not an expert in it, admittedly. What I might give you..." he confessed, being a bit at a loss with it.

"Pharmacy...tell them...ya need...something for ya...girlfriend...she´s strong pain...in back...but...heavy flow. No matter what...only nothing...of what one...bleeds the more. Blood coagulation, Henry!...Should mean...something to you..." she brought out with some effort.

"Okay...I don´t like to let you alone, but maybe a pharmacy nearby is open..."

"Please..."

Her view and her voice made him moving. "I´ll do as fast as possible..." he grabbed his coat from the couch and shortly after it he was down at the reception desk in the lobby.

"Good evening, Greg..."

"Good evening, Mr. Fitzroy!" Greg, the doorman smiled at him.

"Greg, do you have a list which pharmacy nearby is still opened." he asked straightforwardly.

"Is Ms. Nelson not well...?" he asked when he looked into his computer file. Greg reminded that she had looked rather sick when she had come an hour before.

"She has a...headache and I want to get her some tablets, cuz I don´t have any at home." Henry lied to him.

A moment later the doorman wrote down an address for him.

"Thank you, Greg!" Henry hurried out.

Only some ten minutes later Henry was back, sending a smiling greet at Greg, when he entered the elevator. Impatiently he was waiting to reach his floor and when the elevator stopped, it took him only seconds to get to his condo.

Vicki heard the door fell shut, then Henry appeared beside her.

"The pharmacist has given me some tablets, which won´t disturb the coagulation. Up to two tablets at once...he has said."

"Okay...gimme..." Vicki fumbled with trembling fingers for the box, when Henry had dimmed the lamp brighter. In the range of the lamp she could weakly read the text on it, outside the light range the bedroom was dissolving in dark shadows between dark orange and black. To her right the closet was reaching up along the wall and only by memory Vicki knew that large sized paintings were hanging at the wall opposite to the bed´s end.

Vicki squinted her eyes, reading the product name.

"Know...them..." The police physician had prescribed them once when she got hurt in training. With some luck it would help a bit. Like she evaluated her current pain, they won´t be gone but at least somewhat more bearable.

"Why...why haven´t you...the wound...Ya saliva...close that..." she complained grumpily. When the wound would close over, it won´t hurt that much, she said to herself.

Henry shook his head no in a gesture of regret: "No, Vic! When I´d have done this, it might cause the danger that the pus draw back into the blood. What would guarantee you a sepsis." And the fever that she was having yet, made deep concerns rising within him. When it won´t lower down within the night, then I _will have_ to call a doctor. But...whom?

Henry saw when Vicki was fighting with the small box. He took it from her hand, giving her two tablets and reaching her a glass of water.

"Can´t...gulp that...down so..." There were tears in her eyes.

"Okay..." Henry shoved one arm under her shoulder, slightly lifting up Vicki. Her face pulled by the pain. She put one tablet on her tongue, but couldn´t get it down. Her throat was dry like desert sand. In disgust she spat it in the glass. Henry pulled his face and Vicki had tears of anger in her eyes. She groaned. She couldn´t even handle these friggin tablets. Henry took it with more pragmatism. He also threw the second tablet in the glass, stirring it with a spoon and supported Vicki by the neck, holding the glass to her lips again.

"Drink! So you´ll get that down...I know, it´s uncomfortable, but you have to go thru this, Vic!" He meant with a soothing voice. Vicki choked the milky brew down and Henry let her carefully sink down on the bed again.

God, she hadn´t been feeling that miserable since long ago. Vicki let her lids drop closed, keeping herself calm with much effort and she waited for the pain to subside. The pain that was running through her belly up to her chest in short intervals. She couldn´t remember to have such trouble with an injury before.

Henry was sitting on the bed´s edge, his cool hand was closed around her right hand and his left hand was lying on her way too warm forehead. When finally her breath became calmer and deeper, he stood up in a flowing movement and went back to the living-room. He typed Tony´s call number in his cellphone.

Henry was impatiently chewing on his lip. The hunger within was slowly becoming remarkable.

It took a while until Tony answered.

In a good temper and so loud and distinct, that Henry pulled the cell away in a reflex, when the voice of the young man threatened to burst his sensitive hearing skills.

"Hi, Tony...where are you yet?"

"Hi, Henry...nice evening! Am right on the Queen, wanna search a client...ya know right..."

"Tony! Now _I am_ your client!"

"Ah yeah! Ain´t ya grace hunger...! Tony grinned. He knew, without saying, that the prize for a stay was never for free. Henry didn´t make a difference in it. The vampire looked at him as _his property._ Vampires were possessive...

From the other end he heard a soft laughter from Henry, then his voice became earnestly.

"Please come over to me, Tony..." Henry begged, doing that without using his usual compelling voice.

"Just...if Greg lets me in...!" Tony mumbled.

"He´ll let you in and up when I´ll announce you. Bring in two pizza. You´re gonna go with pizza service..."

"Kay, Henry...any special wishes...?"

"Doesn´t matter what! Bring in what you´ll like. I guess, I won´t get Vicki eating any of it..."

"Vicki? Is Victory with ya?...Uhm, dunno...if I ain´t disturb ya..."

"No worries about that, Tony! Haul your ass and come over! I am hungry!" Henry´s voice was a hint darker, deeper, but not completely on compelling level, as Tony called it. Uh, when Henry sounded like that, it was already heavy. Ain´t not have any nosh since three nights, Tony thought and made his way in the next pizzeria.

Not long after it, Tony maundered with two boxes of pizza into the lobby of the Renaissance Plaza, leading his steps to Greg´s reception desk, whistling funnily. He gave Greg the doorman a bright smile.

"Good evening...whom do you wish to visit, Sir?" Greg shot him a scrutinizing view. He had addressed him with a _Sir_ due to the house rules, but the man in front of him looked rather like somebody from the street and he seemed barely to be an adult. A look down on his jeans verified this. Greg showed the politeness of a doorman, but he also had to be warily. Even in this part of Toronto were a lot of people in the streets, who definitely won´t belong in here unless one of the tenants had informed him of an expected visitor... Greg gave him an obliging smile, his mind was searching through the folder _Familiar persons_.

"Tony from the Pizza Service Venezia. Twice of pizza for Mr. Fitzroy...Is announced, has Mr. Fitzroy said when he ordered..."

Greg nodded and dialed upstairs: "Mr. Fitzroy, the pizza service has arrived..." Then Greg nodded. "14th floor...number 1407...elevator A"

"Thank you, Sir!"

Upstairs, Tony knocked on the door, that was opened in front of him.

"Hello, Hen..." He was grabbed by his arm and rather suddenly and a bit roughly he was pulled inside the condo, before the door closed in his back.

"Oops! Guess...ya rather hungry, ain´t ya...?!" Tony mumbled, when Henry put the pizza boxes down on the couch table easily. He was used to Henry´s tenderly-rough way, but today the view of the vampire was bearing anything else than only being lead by hunger or appetite. What let Tony become more carefully.

Henry looked at him appraisingly, his view anywhere between amusement and deep concern. Then his face got a serious expression.

"Uhm, I dunno...is Vicki here...? Where´s she...anyway...?" Tony asked, when his eyes searched thru the condo, but he couldn´t find Vicki anywhere.

"Over there..." Henry directed with his thumb to the bedroom doors.

"There?" Tony looked at him, being a bit astonished. When Henry nodded, Tony pulled his brows up. "What´s up with her? Isn´t she going well, Henry...or is she..."

The following view let him twitch and duck automatically, although he was taller than Henry. Tony stiffened and kept himself upright, when Henry laid an arm around his shoulder and the lips of the vampire were nearing to his ear. A look to the side showed him, that Henry wasn´t vamped out. Tony relaxed a bit.

"Vicki is here, because she´s in a very bad shape. Someone stabbed her in the street. Nobody is allowed to know that she´s here, until we ´ve caught the guy, who´s done that! So not a word to anybody! Did you understand it, Tony?!" Henry´s eyes were boring in his with an intensity, that showed that Henry was totally serious about it.

Tony put his finger on his lips: "I don´t give it away! Quite certain, Henry!"

"If you reveal anything, I´m done with you, Tony! Is that clear?!"

"Unconditionally understood, Henry!" Tony could imagine, what Henry would do with him when he would drop the ball. And that would have nothing to do with _fun_.

Absolutely nothing.

Henry nodded. His eyes were dark and his face was earnest. Tony couldn´t say if it was by hunger or by anger. There seemed to burn a dark fire behind his stony expression. Something dangerous, animalistic.

Tony had often seen him in full vampire mode when Henry had gotten off with him and or only had been feeding on him. But tonight Henry looked strangely tensed. Was it only the concern for Vicki or was a hidden rage behind it? Wrath for the unknown attacker or was it something more severe? Sure, Henry could flip right out, when anybody was attacking one of his friends or one of his confidants/protégés. And there wasn´t to fool about with a really enraged vampire.

Henry sighed deeply.

On his centuries old shoulders were put one, no, a couple of heavy loads. Vicki was hurt and she was miserable. And he had to work together with a vampire, whom he doesn´t know and by the principle instinct could the less stand, even before he had seen him. And the coming out to Detective Celluci was hanging on his neck like a millstone.

Only when Tony groaned low, he noticed that he had dug his fingers into Tony´s shoulder a bit too hard and immediately he let go. Tony decently rubbed his shoulder and Henry´s hand was gliding deeper, laying around his shoulders, when he directed him to the couch.

"Okay...come over here, Tony..."

The blinds were down and Henry shoved him to the couch.

"Bow...ya´re in a hurry..." Tony mumbled, when Henry dumped him on the upholstery.

"Why...?" Henry tried a smile.

"Is just a feeling, dunno..."

"Pizza men are never in for long, as far as I remember..." but the smile didn´t turn out the intended way.

"Ooch...doesn´t have to...there´s also full service...with waiter, when mister may wish..." Tony grinned and he hit the pizza boxes. "For whom is the second one...as fa as I remind pizza doesn´t add in your diet list..." he smirked.

"It´s for you!" Henry casually replied, when he felt the hunger rising within at the sight of the young human...who would also handle two of the large pizzas...especially after Henry would have fed on him. Tony was a bit slim, though he was taller than Henry.

"Uhm...before you´ll...get started, Henry..." Tony shot him a sheepish look...That´s my only set of clean rags in the moment. Gonna be nice...when ya won´t ruin...or spill anything."

Henry growled. Did the vampire even listen to what he had said last?

Before Tony could breathe, he had landed on the couch. And Henry on him. His eyes were dark as the night. Whoa...he ain´t care much about foreplay! Tony thought, when Henry undressed him in rapidly.

Henry growled deep in his throat, even waiting so long, until Tony´s _only set of clean rags_ was lying undamaged on the rug in front of the couch. He bared his teeth, his fangs extended to their full length and he drove his tongue a few times over Tony´s shoulder curve, before he buried his fangs in the soft flesh.

Tony gave a deep groan.

Shoulder curve hurts. More than the inner side of his forearm. Quasi as a compensation, he felt Henry´s fingers definitely at another place. That...oh, that was already way better...He tried not to look into Henry´s eyes. Never look a vampire into the eyes, otherwise he got you- when Henry shortly lifted his head and his lips were reddened by Tony´s blood.

"That´s...hammer phat..." Tony gasped.

"Got that any quieter...?" Henry.

Crap! They weren´t all alone. Right. Damn. Henry´s hands were too skillful! Don´t ask...go on...shit!

"What a wicked..." Tony whimpered suppressed. Henry´s mouth dug again in his shoulder. Does he _drain ya yet_? It shot through Tony´s mind for a mere second, when he felt Henry swallowing. How large is his hunger? Doesn´t matter, it´s worth it...!

Henry put one hand on his lips while his other hand drove Tony to the edge of going nuts. Only the hand on his mouth prevented Tony from screaming loudly, when he came hard and heavy.

Finally Tony was lying rather wiped out on the sofa, rather agitated and exhausted. Henry´s eyes became brighter and he was lying beside Tony, looking at him while the coagulant in his saliva was

stopping the bleeding.

"Quite okay? Is...everything alright, Tony?" he carefully asked.

"Guess...well...only a bit dizzy...shit, Henry...ya´ve really gotten off, ain´t ya...?" Tony gasped, when his breath was calming down and his heartbeat slowed down.

"Bad...?" Henry carefully asked.

"Got that...heavy...Ya hadn´t feed for longer...haven´t you? I thot..."

"Not since two nights...I´m sorry, Tony..." Henry excused. For a moment his look went empty. Tony voice dragged him back to reality.

"Thot so. Is already okay, Henry..." Tony meant and he tried to smile; "...all okay, Henry...I´m simply gonna eat two pizzas and get a Cola more. Ain´t that constantly...but that had still been phat..." Tony slipped from the couch, pulling his clothes on again.

_To be continued_


	6. Chapter 4 Unwanted involvement Part Two

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 4.1**_

_Sometimes you have to put your inner voices to silence, against your instincts and against all you´ve been clinging so dearly to. Giving up a safety, that has become all too familiar, as life can be a merciless ruler..._

**Unwanted involvement - Part Two**

The sounds in the hotel were slowly ebbing when it grew later. When one could call a normal sound level as noise.

But the hearing of a vampire was multiple times sensitive than that of a mortal, especially when one might be able to hear up to the ultrasonic range. Sometimes Mick St. John was longing for the calmness of his fridge, I which he preferred to sleep. He liked the freshness and coolness, although he didn´t need it to sustain his immortal body. It was more a kind of luxury, which he enjoyed. But that won´t work in a hotel, even when Augustus was taking care of all.

A body sized fridge in a hotel room won´t be the thing to be argued for reasonably.

Mick sighed and placed the laptop on the bed beside him and swung the legs out of the bed, getting himself a snack from the fridge box, which he had discreetly placed in the wardrobe. This thing was lockable. Not, that he was afraid of any room service who might steal his blood bags, but it won´t look good, when he stored blood transfusions in his room. To explain it to anybody...would have needed an outrageous story of any dubious disease, which he was suffering from and which would have needed upgraded transfusion materials for treatment.

And cause of the fact that Toronto belonged to a territorial vampire, he had strong doubts that especially in this hotel another vampire would be hanging out, going to steal his blood.

He let the blood run down over his tongue into his throat, thoroughly sucking the container empty and then he put the bag back into the box.

Mick had spent have the evening working on the data files, which his friend Logan Griffen, who was an avid music lover and was spending most of his time in front of his computer than anywhere else, had mailed to him. When he has sated his first hunger, Mick dressed and locked up his room. He had bought a warm jacket in a shopping center. At this time of the year, it was definitely cooler than in the sun-blessed Los Angeles.

Outside the hotel on Yonge he turned into town. His destination wasn´t far away and so a walk was a change to sitting in front of his computer. Downtown was busy all night long. Cars and pedestrians were crowding the streets and shortly after it he turned over into Bloor Street. Three blocks and two side streets later he approached to a high risen office building. It was only sparsely lit now, because most of the offices had been left already. Only a few were lit up now.

Mick leaned at a wall, pulled a highly sensitive directional microphone from his pocket and plugged his earphone on. After some adjustments he directed it to the building on the opposite and he concentrated onto the sounds and voices which his electronic bugging device transmitted to him. He searched for parts of conversation, which would give him indications of illegal activities. Investigations in Los Angeles and Tijuana had resulted in showing up with a definite trace to Toronto. Because his old friend and now client, the District Attorney Josh Lindsey, couldn´t investigate in Canada, he had begged Mick to follow the evidences to Toronto, before he could send a request for judicial assistance to the office of the district attorney and the police of Toronto.

Beth naturally had wanted to accompany him, but Mick had categorically denied this in sight of the vampiric situation in Toronto.

Too dangerous.

He couldn´t risk it to get her in danger, just if the other should plan any actions against him. A mortal woman on his coat-tails, and may she even be familiar with vampires, was too vulnerable and made him vulnerable too, cause he´d have to be considerate of her. And he was responsible for her well-being and her safety. Beth was very brave and determined, but Mick would never forgive himself, if she´d get hurt, only because he had brought her in.

The fragments of conversation which he could listen to, didn´t give much of information about the case. Probably there wasn´t much going on in the offices at this time. He moved his microphone a bit around and had to grin, when it caught sounds which had definitely nothing in common with usual office work. Upstairs, from the ninth floor, the sounds of human _copulation activities_ were coming from a darkened office.

Any guy obviously was about to get off with his office assistant.

Smilingly he went on to search over the building front. Maybe it would be better to try it again tomorrow, he said to himself. Just in the moment when he concentrated on another less informative conversation, his cellphone started to hum in his jacket pocket.

Logan? Did he have new information for him?

Mick pulled out the earphone, answering the call.

No caller-ID. The call number showing up indicated a call from a Canadian mobile net.

Who tried to reach him? He had no partners in Canada.

"It´s St. John here..."

It took a moment until a male voice answered from the other end of the onnection, a voice which was completely unknown to him...

**Henry´s apartment**

Tony sat down, opened the pizza box and bit down in one of the pieces. The pizza had become cold meanwhile. Ain´t that good, but he wasn´t all too squeamishly. Living in the streets had made him hard in some things. Food was food. Tony looked up to Henry, who was walking through the living-room anyway nervously. A sight that was rather uncommon with him. The face of the vampire looked strangely tensed.

"Henry...?"

Henry´s head turned around, as if he had dragged him out of deep thoughts. Henry´s view went to the couch table, the pizza. Cold.

While he typed the number into the display of his cellphone, which Augustus had given him, he directed with the hand to the pizza, then to the kitchen.

"Microwave!" Henry´s lips formed the advice, while he was waiting for the connection. Then he took up his round through the living-room again.

Tony understood, taking the boxes and went over to the kitchen.

"Good idea. It doesn´t taste that good being cold, Henry..." he mumbled but he didn´t get an answer from the vampire. He shrugged his shoulders and searched through the kitchen closets until he found a fitting plate, on which he piled up the pizza. Henry heard the _Pling_ of the microwave, when Tony placed his food inside to warm it up.

Henry´s face turned stone when he answered the call.

"Mr. Mick St. John, Private Investigator?"

"Yes, that´s me."

"Fitzroy. Henry Fitzroy.

"Good evening! What can I do for you, Mr. Fitzroy...?"

The other cleared his throat.

The voice had a timbre that was...not human.

Not utterly. The man sounded young, but when he was, what Mick suggested, it said nothing. The person at the other end of the connection might be centuries old. His friend Josef Kostan looked young, but he was existing since 1599.

"Good evening, Mr. St. John. You may wonder why I´m calling you, but I´ve gotten your number from a good acquaintance. Normally I won´t do this, but I need...Your help."

Mick heard that the last words were brought out after a long pause. It seemed to be not easy for the whomsoever. Subliminally he heard something from it, what only a vampire was able to get from:

The tone had...something threatening.

Like from someone who was very consciously of his position and who was determined to assert his unquestioned claim of power.

It began to dawn on Mick after a few moments, with whom he was talking obviously...

This Henry Fitzroy was the owner of the Toronto territory!

But, what was Fitzroy wanting of him? He, Mick, had kept within the defined borders, though he was only feeding from bagged food, so that somebody would have problems to accuse him of a violation of the assigned hunting grounds. And what did he mean by _help_...? Did the other want him to accompany him against an opponent?

Mick kept out of stuff like this by principle...

Mick hastily thought over how to react best.

Attention was up. He didn´t want to provoke the other vampire. It was possible that he would react completely different as he was used to it from his fellows in Los Angeles. There everything was going on much more relaxed. And what had he to do with the territory quarrels in Toronto...?

He wanted to work on his case, there wasn´t more on his to-do-list.

"Uhm, Mr. Fitzroy...I´m only in Toronto, cuz I´m working on a case for somebody, that has led me over here...I´m...not about to take over another mandate."

There was a sharp intake of breath at the other end of the line.

A halfway swallowed growl.

Wow, in what mood are ya? Mick inwardly groaned.

"That is no normal order, Mr. St. John! I told, I need your _help_! The tone was hard, didn´t seem to accept any objection.

Mick didn´t let himself being intimidated, even not by the son of a king.

"I won´t support you in any territory quarrels, Mr. Fitzroy! This you´ll have to clear by yourself! Like hell I´m going to let me get dragged into something like that here, on foreign ground, or even generally. I´m private investigator, no hunter or judge!"

"It seems that you haven´t understood, what I´m talking about!" Fitzroy snarled. "And keep _hell_ out of it! Got it?"

Heaven! Which channel had he hit there?

"When you´ll explain to me more concretely, what it´s about, then I can decide, if I might help you, Mr. Fitzroy. Maybe we should talk about it calmly..." When the guy at the other end won´t come down soon, he would simply hang up anytime. Mick felt no intention to cope with a client, who treated him like one of his minions, even when Toronto belonged to him.

"Calmly. Uhm...well..."

"Suggest a meeting place, Mr. Fitzroy. A place on neutral ground might appeal to you, I think..." Mick suggested.

"150 Bloor West. Condo 1407. In one hour!"

No further inquiry. Nothing. Only time and place.

Either he´s completely in stress...or it´s his usual mood, Mick thought. No wonder that Augustus had filled him with detailed information and behavioral rules. He decided to hurry back to his hotel room to get his handgun. It might not turn out much, but at least the munition might slow him down if the worst comes to the worst. Giving him the seconds he would need to escape.

Henry hung up, clenching his teeth.

He would have preferred it to meet the other on neutral ground when it was inevitable, but he couldn´t let Vicki alone in the moment. Tony was here though and could look for her now and then, but he won´t be able to protect her when the attacker would have been following her.

Tony who was appearing in the kitchen door now and was swallowing the last piece of his pizza.

"Am I gonna disturb ya...?" he asked in a low voice.

Henry shook his head no.

"Uhm...how long have I been up here with ya actually...?" Tony dug deeper.

"Long enough. But don´t worry. It´s none of Greg´s business. Did you get sated, Tony...?" The young man had obviously gulped down his meal in record time, but Henry noticed that Tony still looked rather thin. He was the lanky-slim type, but he had noticed that Tony´s body still lacked of the certain something of muscles, an indication of often failed meals.

Henry forced his thoughts away from the other vampire. He was rather angrily but that wasn´t Tony´s fault. Since a long time he had to take some deep breaths, before he went on. Tony noticed how tensed Henry was, noticing his constantly uneasiness.

"Maybe I should go now, Henry...!" Tony suggested because of it.

"No, you´ll stay!" Henry answered abruptly, his eyes suddenly turning dark again, when he abruptly lifted his head and was literally staring at him. Tony unintentionally twitched a bit. Was Henry already hungry again or what was going on?

Then Henry seemed to relax a bit. His voice got softer, when he made a step back from Tony, whose concern he could scent.

"I´m about to get a visitor in one hour. It´s cuz of Vicki. So you can easily take a hot shower, when you like..." Henry directed to the bathroom in the hallway.

"And after it I´ll go?"

"No! I want you to stay here. That´s safer for you. When you´re running around outside, you might become a target for the badass who already has hurt Vicki."

"Whoa! Must be really dangerous, what she got started with...I´ve always told Victory that she should be careful! But she ain´t listen to me!"

"You´re not the only one who has this problem with her, Tony." Henry joined him. Tony nodded in agreement, then he went over to the bathroom.

Tony closed the door in his back, undressed and entered the shower cabin. His own quarter had only a tub and in the past he had to shower in the shelter of the Salvation Army. It was always crowded there, waiting in a row and please hurry, and also it could happen that after the shower the money and the clothing had been gone. So he was glad of every option to shower comfortably as in Henry´s condo.

Towels were placed in a small shelf beside the shower.

Tony turned the water on, let ting it run down his body. When he soaped his body, he twitched a bit when his hand was moving over the area where Henry had sunken in his teeth. In his shoulder neck curve a bruise was becoming apparent. Normally Henry was more careful, he thought, but either he had been rather hungry or he´d been a bit lacking of concentration.

When he had finished, he turned off the water.

Suddenly he grew a little dizzy and he took hold at the frame of the shower cabin, when the bathroom started a pretty nice merry-go-round.

"Oops...ya really drink like a fish, Henry...ain´t ya..." Tony mumbled. Fortunately directly beside the shower was a small seat and Tony sat down on it, grabbing for a towel. As far as he reminded, warm water was dilating the blood vessels, what naturally wasn´t about to rise his blood pressure.

Maybe I should have better taken a cold shower!

But Tony didn´t feel like going back into the shower to test out the theory by practice. He toweled himself off, got carefully up from the seat, one hand clinging to the frame for safety.

A cold feeling was rising up in his head, fixing as a gray wall behind his eyes and everything in front of his eyes became foggy. Tony consciously breathed deeply.

"Oh man, Henry...had that be necessary...?!" he complained. He wanted to make the vampire responsible for it, when suddenly dizziness was added by nausea in his stomach.

_Two pizzas maybe...had been a bit much of it...Or...bacteria? Any what crap bacteria, which had maybe been in there...?_

He became really sick in his stomach and he looked around in the bathroom, searching.

Toilet?

"Jeez...guess...I gonna puke..." Tony cursed, when he went for the toilet seat. His head felt like a ball of lead, which he tried to balance on a shashlik stick or on one of this colored chop sticks. Shouldn´t have shoveled down two pizzas before showering...

The toilet suddenly seemed to be miles away, not only some feet when stumbled in direction of it. Why did peeps build such giant bathrooms? He groaned through clenched teeth, making still another step.

The toilet bowl...was shooting up to the ceiling, rushing up beside his head.

"What the heck...?"

The light in the bathroom gave space to Stygian darkness. Demons? Not already again...!

"Tony..."

A name. From anywhere far away.

"Tony!"

His name. Uh, he didn´t want to open his eyes. It was so dark in here and icy claws were closing around his head. Then a claw was lying on his throat.

_Death has a cold hand_...crap, what has this...where did it come from? Oh yeah! German TV crime movie...had it to do with him? Had been a demon breaking thru and had transferred him into the movie? Tony thought in confusion.

Crap! He would have to inform Henry about it, before...

"Open your eyes!" The God of the Oak commanded.

Reluctantly Tony tried to fight his way back into the light. He breathed gasping, was trembling all over. Finally he got his eyes open. It wasn´t that terrible bright. Soft light from a gently dimmed lamp. How kindly.

He was lying... Coffee table beside him. Why? Without thinking much of it, he whispered: "Where...where am I?

The claws turned into gentle hands, cool.

"Couch!" the answer came. "...the kitchen table won´t have to go in constant use today..." A face was appearing above him, cerulean eyes watched him in concern.

"Hen...ry...?!" Tony pressed out weakly. "What...´n happened..."

"I´ve been in the room here, when I heard a thus from the bathroom..." Henry´s hand moved to Tony´s throat, feeling for the pulse, though he didn´t need it really. He heard Tony´s heart beating, pulling the woolen blanket up to his chest. "I´m...I´m feeling sorry, Tony..."

"What are ya sorry for? I gotta...dizzy suddenly, downright sick...Dunno...ain´t happen anytime before..."

Henry bent over him, his eyes went dark suddenly and he started to sniff along the young man. Tony looked at him in astonishment.

"What...what´s up? What are ya doing, Henry?"

Henry looked at him, doubtful, thoughtful, when he was seemingly on the cent. Then he shook his head.

No trace, even not a hint of a scent.

When there had ever been a scent, then the warm water in the shower had washed it off.

"What´s up?" Tony asked once again.

Henry´s eyes darkened, his fangs had extended and he suppressed a growl, burying it deep in his throat, when he moved his hand under the blanket, gently grabbing for Tony´s left ankle, pulling his leg out from under the blanket.

Astonished, Tony let him act, giving in to his hand, when he turned his ankle up.

"_That_ _hadn´t_ been _me_!" Henry growled, when Tony looked down on his ankle, where, almost invisible now...

...four punctures were showing up.

Tony stared at the bite marks as if seeing them for the first time, Henry noticed. His face darkened and he felt an unbearable rage, which he only kept back with effort to not scare Tony.

First of all somebody stabbed Vicki, almost killing her and then this vampire dared to to attack his _property_. Henry couldn´t imagine that it had been anybody else but St. John, who dared it to feed on Tony. He would have noticed it when another predator would be in his city, Henry told to himself.

"Tony...who was..." he directed to the almost healed bite marks, "...THAT?"

"Henry, I dunno! I ain´t even...noticed it...I..."

"Tony, I´m not always out with you! You have your freedom, you know..."

"I´m running at your long leash..." Tony smiled melancholic and Henry might have smirked about this remark, but he was too angrily.

"Tony, when anybody else had fed on you, you have to tell me! You´re undermining the intervals, I´ve indeed set up, so that your blood can regenerate! Goodness...a bit more...when I´d have taken a bit more from you, I could have killed you! Did I make myself clear, Tony?!"

"Henry...I can´t remind it that anybody had drinking from me! Honestly...I dunno!"

"Tony, I´m believing you...don´t worry. But..." Henry pulled himself together. He could scent fear on Tony. Maybe the other had manipulated Tony´s perception, so that he didn´t notice it, that he was bitten.

That was some three days old, that could Henry tell by experience.

"Where have you been three nights ago?" Hopefully Tony could remind this at least.

"I..." Tony was thinking it over. "I´ve been out in Etobikoke with two buddies...Have been drinking, then we went to any dark club..."

"In Etobikoke? That´s outside of my territory where I´m searching for a donor..." Henry thought. "Which club had this been?"

"Mhm...Simon...or kinda...yup! Simon´s Loft. Gonna somewhat outside...kinda old factory...Had been rather crowded in it. It´s a hangout of young peeps from the neighborhood...But dunno all

these peeps, only these two buddies, who´d been there with me..."

"Well, yeap...How good do you know these guys?"

"They´re quite okay, Henry...And..." Tony grinned; "They are all hanging out in the sunshine, ain´t biting...only gonna scrap when it´s necessary..."

Henry had to smile though now. Tony had a colorful expression. One could hear that he was eking a living out in the streets.

It was possible that there was a vampire out there, with whom he never had to cope or whom he didn´´t even know. Etobikoke didn´t belong to his territory, though it was placed directly westward. Or this St. John had been yielded to there...

He would clear that, when he´d show up here.

Nobody assaulted his protégés unpunished, those, which he were looking at as his friends or as his meal-on-legs.

_To be continued_


	7. Chapter 5 More Questions

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 5**_

_Sometimes you´re longing for answers, but instead of it, more questions are showing up. And instead of solutions, life gets more complicated..._

**More questions...**

Henry covered Tony with the blanket again and brought him a large glass of orange juice.

"You gonna have to drink a lot, Tony, so you´ll get enough liquid and your blood can regenerate..."

Then he went back to his bedroom, bent over Vicki.

Thank God! She had fallen asleep. Obviously the painkillers helped a bit at least, so that she could sleep.

Steps and a foreign scent made him getting attentive. In the same moment he whirled around on his heels. His teeth were bared and he snarled, his fangs dropped and his pupils were widened and pitch black. Within seconds he was at the front door. Henry flung the door open, positioning himself in the door frame with his arms crossed. And without letting the visitor in, the less inviting him in.

A man was standing in front of him.

Dark, curly hair, young...anywhere between his mid-thirties and end-thirties. He was some 6 ft 1" tall and by this some 4" taller than him. His skin a bit pale as Henry noticed beside.

Vampire

The heartbeat and his scent revealed it to him before the stranger opened his mouth.

His instinct drove him to attack and Henry growled. His hands clenched to fists and he had to fight for control to keep himself from getting loose on the other.

Instinct was fighting with reasonable mind for the dominance.

"Good evening. Mr. Fitzroy...? Mick St. John, private detective. We´ve been on phone just before..."

"Yes. Fitzroy. Henry Fitzroy..." Henry pulled himself together.

It was him who had ordered the other vampire to meet him.

And now he was here.

"Good evening, Mr. St. John. Come in." Henry made a single step to the side, let Mick in so that he could enter the hallway.

"Sorry. I´m not all alone..."

"Shall I come back any other time?" Mick carefully asked.

"No."

"You´ve asked for help...Can we...speak openly?" Mick tested for uncertain waters.

"Yes, they are friends. Confidants you might say. You can speak openly." Henry directed with the hand to the open door of his library. Here they could have an undisturbed talk, without disturbing someone else.

His facial expression was icy.

Mick naturally noticed it. The heartbeat of his conspecific? opponent?...was almost equal to a human´s, was only vampire typically lower. He still didn´t speed up yet, when he was leading the way and led him into a room, which was filled up with antiques and bookcases. Two heavy leather chairs were arranged around a small table.

While passing by, he threw a look on the young man who was dozing on the couch under a woolen blanket.

Fast, somewhat flat pulse.

Blood loss? Had Fitzroy...?

As short as his view had been, Henry noticed it, where to St. John´s eyes had gone.

"You know him!" he confronted Mick with the tone of a verified fact, waited for the reaction, his hearing was directed to the heart of the other. When he would lie right now, his heartbeat would be speeding up unintentionally.

Mick looked at him, Henry´s eyes were black.

What the...?

"Are you up to suspect me of, that I´d him...?" Mick´s tone became definitely sharper, he felt how his facial expression started to change.

"I´ve warned you, St. John! I´ve claimed a hunting ground to you and when you should one of mine..."

Mick finally grew tired of it. His eyes turned bright and his face pulled with rage, when his own fangs dropped and he growled at Henry. Henry bared his fangs.

"I didn´t damage your property! What great deal of yourself are you even thinking, Fitzroy? Goddamn I´m in no need to poach just in your territory! The less to drink from somebody who´s _your acquired_ property!" There were sounds coming from his throat which were between a growl and a sharp hiss, when he snarled at Fitzroy.

Henry glared at him, his hands clenched to fists. At the same time he saw that St. John´s eyes were brightening contrary to his own.

And he had only _two_ fangs instead of four in his upper jaw.

Alas he hadn´t attacked Tony!

Henry moved back two steps, not letting his view from Mick, but his facial features relaxed a bit and he retracted his fangs, his eyes turned from black to dark cerulean. For mere seconds Henry thought what to say best yet. It was on him now as he had let pull himself to a somewhat overshooting reaction.

St. John was innocent in case of Tony.

He had no other option, than to confess this now and to excuse himself. Henry breathed deeply, then he said in a voice as calm and as firm as possible:

"I´m sorry, Mr. St John, for accusing you. It has _definitely not_ been you...!"

"Where from now the sudden turn around of opinion?" Mick´s voice sounded cynically. He was still rather angrily, though he had switched back to his normal, human facial features.

"Your teeth."

"My...teeth?!"

"Yes. Your tooth profile. You´re having two fangs. The biting wound at the ankle of the young man here is showing four punctures." Henry admitted.

Mick gave an understanding nod.

"I´m recommending you to be somewhat more careful with hasty accusations next time, Mr. Fitzroy! I´d been coming over here, because you´re wishing help. Not to go for each other´s throat! How do you think to go on now?" Mick sighed inwardly.

That Fitzroy won´t be taken easily, this he had suggested. Alone cause of his territorial tenure. Also because he was protecting his nutrition sources, his blood donors and so his resources too. But he had no experience with vampires, who were so jealously watching over their blood donors. The word _mine_ seemed to be burned-in in Fitzroy´s thinking. Irrespective what it came to. Which kind of tenures. Also Josef had regulars of mostly female blood donors, but he was willingly sharing too. No firmly cemented sole claim.

"As I said before, I´m sorry, Mr. St. John...when you´ll learn to know, what it´s up to...well, then you might...understand my concern. Please..." Henry directed to the chair next to him. Mick sat down and Henry took the chair opposite to him, after he had closed the door.

After nobody had said a word for some long seconds, Mick decided to start.

"When I shall help you, Mr. Fitzroy, it would be best when first of all, you would give me the details as far as possible, so I can get a picture of it..."

Henry was glad, that he could concentrate now on the factual part of their meeting. It helped him to win some distance to his former, more than overshooting reaction and to bring his thoughts in a row.

"So, the situation is as following: I have a working partnership..." t_o more he sadly couldn´t Vicki_ _bring up in the moment_. "...with a private detective, ex-police officer...Ms. Nelson. She has taken a case, which is obviously of higher significance, as she might have suspected first. First, an employee of the company seemed to have done some defalcations and nontransparent transactions. But there has to be much more behind it, as I suggest...because yesterday evening, when she was on her way to her mandating client, she got stabbed down by this suspect in public...!" Henry felt the rage rising in him again.

"Has she...survived the assault?"

"Yes, she has made it to me tonight, to hide in here. She´s lying in my bedroom..."

"Are you sure that nobody has been following her?"

"She´s quite certain about it! And I would nobody recommend, trying to intrude in here..." Henry´s eyes flashed black, his fangs were dropped. Just for a second, then he looked all human again.

"Is Ms. Nelson responsive? Might I ask her some questions...?"

"She´s sleeping in the moment. Fortunately. I´ve given her an analgesic, as far as it may help. She is in strong pain and is in a high fever. Probably later on she´ll be awake. I don´t want to wake her up now..."

Mick nodded. "I´m understanding."

"Ms. Nelson has remarked some data files, which she has. Obviously these are of high significance..."

"Disc? USB stick?"

"I would have to look if she has brought them in..."

"I´m having an acquaintance over there in L.A., a vampire, who´s a bit of a computer crazy guy. When I would transfer him the data, he might be able to analyze them for us. Possibly this will bring us forward...!" Sometimes Mick asked himself, if Logan wasn´t turning into the first vampire cyborg of history. For him days might have twenty eight hours.

"You mean, he...will be hacking into the company´s network?" Henry shot him a telling view.

"The last of it I didn´t hear, Mr. Fitzroy." Mick grinned tellingly. "I´m addressing him when it comes to difficult computer stuff..." _What will cost me lots of his favorite, rare blood group tubes again._

"Normally I would search for the attacker myself, but Vicki needs me in here...!" Henry moved out of his seat, driven by uneasiness, and moved to the door.

"I´ll look if I will find any data carrier amidst her belongings...please wait for a moment."

Mick nodded in agreement and Henry disappeared into the bedroom.

In the light of the single nightstand lamp, Henry bent over the bed., moving his hand up to Vicki´s forehead, shoving a blonde strand to the side and he softly laid his fingers laid on her skin.

"Oh Lord, Vicki! You´re literally glowing...!" he mumbled in a low voice.

Her lids twitched and a scared sound slipped from her mouth. Her hand jerked up, moving to her abdominal wall. Henry caught her midair, before she could press her onto her belly.

Vicki groaned deeply and drawled.

"Vicki...?!" she heard a voice.

Man. Who?

_The guy thrusts. Glowing pain, when the thing was driving thru her abdominal wall, ripping her flesh open. Henry! Help me, Henry!_

"HENRY!"

Vicki screamed, she twitched and tried to throw herself around, obviously being caught in a dream.

"Calm! Quite calm!" Henry had to make use of his full strength to keep her calm with gentle force. She groaned and pulled her eyes open.

Vicki was staring at him, slowly letting her breath out. Her breath rate slowed down when she slowly, very slowly got it who was bending over her.

"Henry..." she weakly mumbled.

He stroked her temple, whispering:" Quite calm, Vicki...I´m here with you...all good! Come on and keep lying calmly, otherwise you´re only gonna hurt you..."

"It...so hurts...please! Help me..." her voice was weak, nearly inaudible. But Henry heard her, hearing how fast her heart was beating. Unconsciously his heartbeat was speeding up too. His view moved over her body and he was feverishly thinking of what he should or could do.

Vicki was in urgent need for a doctor.

The wound was too severe and the fever already high enough. Anywhere from he had to get a doctor for Vicki. When a hospital was out of the question, then at least a doctor who might be looking over her wound and could give her any meds against the infection, that was raging in her body... He had experience with injuries, which he had already gotten. But a mortal, who definitely didn´t possess his powers of self-healing... In his mortal past, surviving severe injuries depended on good luck. Nowadays it was different.

But, whom should he call in?

This forensic, whom he had talked to in the TMP laboratory? This woman seemed not to be close-minded to the uncommonly. That he had noticed when he had shown her Sarah´s Buttercup drawing.

´_Might something like this have killed her...?_´ … ´_When it does exist_ (Pause) _Does it?_´

On the spur of the moment, he bent over Vicki again. Anywhere she must have the call number of this Dr. Mohadevan!

"Vicki! Vicki...I need...your...cellphone!...Do you understand? Your...cellphone!"

She looked at him as if he was from another world. Then slowly it seemed to dawn to her what he wanted from her. Her lips were moving.

"What...? Where...?"

"Ja...cket..."

"Okay, Vic..." her clothing was lying on the Victorian sofa, where he had put it down. Her shoulder bag was lying there too. Henry searched through the pocket of her parka. There wasn´t such a mess like in the depths of her bag. Her telescopic baton dropped in his hands. On the handle still some dried blood. Her blood.

For mere seconds he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and then he found her cell.

He clicked through the electronic phone book.

No entry under D like doctor. C...negative. M...negative.

Under R like Rajani he found the number.

Of course! Vicki and the coroner were not only colleagues since long years, but friends too. Good! He would call her later when St. John would have been gone. Henry put the cellphone in his pocket, then he searched thru Vicki´s bag for any data carrier. Silently cursing over the Vicki typical chaos in the bag.

A woman´s bag was a world of itself. Especially when it came to a woman being a P.I. and ex-cop. Finally his fingers found what he was searching for. Deep in the bag, hidden below the bottom lining, in the corner. Henry shot Vicki another look, who was lying calmly yet again. His eyes turned dark by sorrow.

Then he went back to his library.

Mick had his view let move over the room. Fitzroy had his closets and shelves full with old books and antiques. A collection throughout the centuries. And he asked himself how much of it were memorabilia from past lives, which he had been living under mortal eyes. Lots of books were very rare and definitely of the range of occultism: Necronomicon, The Book of Blood etc. Either it was pure passion for collecting, or Fitzroy had a definite interest in the area, he thought.

Then the door opened and Fitzroy entered the room again.

"I´ve found an USB-stick among her belongings. I´m hoping, that these data are on it...!"

"Do you have a shielded network here?"

"I´ve a laptop. Also in the graphic novels business you have to modernize. Drawing does not help all alone, when you wanna stay in the saddle..." Henry meant.

"Ah! That´s you! I´ve always asking me who´s the creator of these...very close to reality...graphic novels...That´s so close to the real events..." Mick meant with a smile.

"I´m already living since long..." Henry smirked.

"World War one and Two...you´ve been at the front...?"

"Rather more behind the front. Resistance and...investigations, just you´re understanding, St. John."

"I´ve been a medic in World War Two." Mick explained.

"A medic...? How...? I mean, all that blood..." Henry looked at him with knitted brows.

"All a question of control. One learns it."

"Yeap! All about learned control. Won´t do without it. Otherwise we would kill all of our blood donors." He consciously avoided the words _drain empty_; "My computer is over there, on the desk...let´s go over there..."

Henry started his computer, then he directed to the desk: "You want? I believe that you´ll have more experience with it than me..."

Mick sat down in the chair at the desk, inserted the USB stick. His fingers were flying over the keys, he tried different combinations, but was meeting the same problems like Vicki before, when in the depths of the program the access was denied by a password. Mick watched over the data which were already visible, then he meant:

"So! Up here my friend Logan has to go! But what I can already see here: These are transactions of high amounts...he seems to have all reasons to hide it... here we have lots of standard bookings, the usual business transfers, I suggest. But with these two transactions, the suspect has made very tiny mistakes, which he might have noticed, but was unable to undo them anymore..." Mick meant after he has watched at the transactions thoroughly.

"Do you believe, there´s more behind it, St. John?" Henry looked over Mick´s shoulder. He asked himself how one could could get along with it. But vampire skills allowed it to check through hundreds and thousands of data in a few minutes, for what a human would have needed hours.

Mick nodded: "When one makes such effort to hide his transactions...I guess...Yes! Your partner has obviously stirred up the famous hornet´s nest...I myself...am tracing a case which has led me from Los Angeles to Toronto and..."

Mick stopped short, called up a data file.

His fingers flew over the keys again, he frowned, searched another option and then he leaned back in his chair with a sigh.

"My goodness...That´s all I need!"

"What did you find, st. John?" Henry asked in tension. He bent deeper, following the fingertip , which directed to a position on the screen.

"This specific transfer here...our suspect has connections to Los Angeles! The case I´ve been set upon! Somebody remits amounts from L.A., which he leads on until they are running over Europe, Switzerland and back here to Canada. The same over the Bermudas...!"

"That means...Oh my Lord...!" Henry felt a cold shudder run down his spine, when he suddenly grasped the full meaning: "...YOUR case and that one, on which Vicki is working, belong together!"

Mick nodded, looked at Henry:

"Yes! They are operating internationally. Our suspect here is only one part of a network, that moves money in the billions, which are originating from drugs racketeering!"

"Drug dealing? Are you certain?" Henry looked at him with some doubts, but his rational mind told him that St. John might be fatally right with his conclusion. Eventually he was already working on that case for some time longer than Vicki.

"Unfortunately YES! I´m investigating for the district attorney of L.A. We´ve already supposed it, but we still didn´t know that the connections are reaching to Canada too! The stuff comes from South East Asia...and is distributed in the USA and Canada..."

"Heroin?"

"Synthesized amphetamines. The pure infernal stuff...The range between effect and poisoning is so narrow, that the smallest overdose is enough to cause severe brain damage and/or death. Most recently we had in L.A. an unusual high count of dead drug users, who all have consumed the same stuff. And those who don´t die..." Mick shook his head. "...are totally freaking out. Ready for the psychiatric´s confined ward...!"

"Then...Oh good Lord! Then I´m understanding, why this badass has tried to kill Vicki!" Henry sat down on the desk´s edge, when he felt as if the ground under his feet would be giving in. His fingers dug into his brown curls.

Drugs!

It couldn´t have come worse. The consumers were dying or they were getting mad.

"Do you have any clue what kinda stuff that is? Chemically, I mean. When this is distributed over here too, then there have to be dead too. That has to be seen here by the local forensic too!" Henry concluded.

"You´re knowing her? The chief coroner of Toronto?" Mick asked.

"Dr. Mohadevan. Yes! Vicki has worked together with her. Vicki had been in the homicide. I´ll ask her, later, when I´ll call her..."

"Good! Ask her please! The coroner of L.A. has said, that he can´t chemically classify that stuff anywhere to. Completely new stuff, as if somebody has build up a new substance."

_To be continued _


	8. Chapter 6 Underground Connections

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 6**_

_Sometimes you´re longing for simple solutions, but all what shows up, are connections which will offer the worst of all imaginations, you ever dared to think of..._

**Underground connections**

"But you´ve said before, that this is some synthesized amphetamine stuff...!" Henry threw in.

"By its effect; yes! But chemically it´s completely different. Nothing like what has been brought up before. Appears out of the blue, works hammer hard, is ballyhooed as the _Ultra trip_. Everybody is only speaking of it as _Hell´s Dust_. And proof can be only provided for a short time. And as if this isn´t already difficult enough, the corpses are turning within short time to anything, what one can only call a shriveled, black mummy...Like when you have treated an Egyptian mummy with a blow pipe..."

"That means that, when the dead is lying around for longer, before he got found, he´ll look like...burnt?" Henry stared at Mick in some disbelief; "And..." he waved with his hand midair; "...these dead have been humans, _not...vampires_?" It could probably be, that...

"Yes, humans, alas mortals! Consuming drugs does not happen among those of our community. Our drug, if ever, is blood. Especially when it belongs to a rare blood group as for example A Zero negative...You´re understanding...!" Mick explained.

"You´re rather paying much attention to the blood group which you´re drinking, ain´t you?" Henry asked.

"The best effect in us has that blood group, which corresponds to the one, which we originally had..." Mick slightly smiled.

"I´m preferring blood, which I´m feeding on from partners...during sex. The taste is incomparable, now, that we are talking feeding habits..." Henry grinned.

Mick didn´t reply to it. When one, like him, was sustaining from bagged blood, he better kept his lips sealed by now... Josef who always tried to reverse his polarity to living donors, had gone into raptures over how delicious blood was tasting during sex.

"So now vampire victims!"

"Only. Only humans among them. Guillermo has said, that he has never seen anything like that before in his career..."

"Guillermo?"

Mick nodded; "He works in the pathology in the hospital...the corpses change within one day, he says, even the blood looks like boiled..."

Henry pulled his face in shudder.

"That´s why they are calling this stuff Hell´s Dust. Like when the victims are coming out of hell." Mick gave back.

"And when this stuff, this drug is...

...indeed coming from hell?!" Henry closed, who had experiences, which the other one was...fortunately...completely lacking of.

"Out of any Asian drug hell. Possibly." Mick reflected on.

Henry shook his head no.

"No! I´m meaning the real hell, St. John!"

Mick was staring at him in disbelief and some amusement.

Typical! Henry thought.

"Ya gonna mean..._That hell_? With devil and so on...? Come on, Fitzroy! You can´t be serious!" Mick shook his head. "Fitzroy! I beg you!" Mick had heard from Augustus, that Fitzroy was kinda...idiosyncratic, strange. But _that_ strange...?

"YES! Lucifer. Astaroth."

Mick stared at him.

"Mr. St. John! I´m absolutely serious about it! I´ve been already living thru things here, which, when you´d have experienced them, would have shaken your view to the core..." Henry tried to stay as calm as possible. When he would be flipping out yet again, it would be of no help for anybody.

The less for Vicki.

A painful expression was darkening Henry´s face, when he mumbled "Vicki...Vicki..." in a low voice.

Mick understood. This woman, who was lying in Fitzroy´s bedroom was way more to him than only a partner in investigations. Fitzroy had much deeper feelings for her. Mick cleared his throat and Henry turned his head to face him.

"This woman in there, Ms. Nelson...Or Vicki, as you´re calling her...she´s more than only a partner in work for you, isn´t it...?" Mick´s voice was soft. "You´re in love with her..."

Henry silently nodded.

"Then I´m understanding a lot of things..." Mick smiled, then he bent his head and Henry was reading thoughtfulness in his face. He seemed to think of how much he was willing to reveal of himself.

Mick thought of how he should react.

The situation had relaxed remarkably after the welcome had been rather harsh and icy, had also been shaded by rivalry and aggression. When Vicki was also Fitzroy´s mortal lover, then he could understand why Fitzroy had been reacting the way he did. He was in love with her and he would be protecting her at any cost, whatever it would need. And most likely, he was fighting with self-reproaches because he couldn´t have protected her from the attempted murder.

For a long moment nobody said anything, then Mick began in a low voice:

"I have a woman over there in L.A., for whom I´m feeling more..."

Henry looked at him and Mick was expecting a rather biting response, something he won´t have any need for right now. But Fitzroy´s voice was soft when he answered yet.

"A lover...?"

"Yes! Beth Turner, she works for an internet magazine. She´s a reporter."

"Not utterly safe..."

"Uhm, pretty hard business first of all. Always having the ratings on her heels. You might know how they gonna handle that..." Then he went on: "Do you have the possibility to send this via email? First of all...encrypted...?"

"Yes, wait a moment please..." Henry typed something. "I´m normally mailing my graphics encrypted to my publisher, so nobody can get access to it before my novel goes in print..." Henry opened his account to him and Mick uploaded the data content.

"Okay. Encryption...?"

Henry typed an encryption code. "You have to give your friend the decoding. I´m only hoping that he won´t hack my graphic novels later on!" Henry shot him a transverse view from the side, with a teeth baring grin.

"No worries, Mr. Fitzroy! Otherwise he gets trouble with me in substitution, when this should happen..." Mick meant with a smile. Then he grabbed his cellphone and pressed the dial button for Logan´s call number.

When the connection stood, first of all loud music was coming from the cellphone, accompanied by throaty vocals.

"He´s acting all John Wolf-throat..." Mick indicated his cellphone with a slight smile, then he shouted: "Hi, Logan! It´s me...!"

"Oh Mick! I´ve just been full on training..."

"Oh come on! I´m gonna need your help, Logan! I´ve just send you an email, which you´ll have to decode. And I shall you tell from my host, that I shall kill you when you´ll hack his encryption to get to his graphic novels!" Mick let it sound rather threatening.

"Ain´t you? Not really! And apropos help! You know that this is gonna cost you at least ten phials...and in case of coding another five!"

Mick rolled his eyes and Henry, who naturally had heard it, grinned. "Is this to be called... expensive?" he whispered.

Mick made with his hand a so-la-la move.

"Uhm, I´m gonna be graciously this once, Mick. Ten plus five extra A Negative fem...okay, what´s up?"

"Check it for bank connection data, hiding behind the password and for all information you can get from it. Transfers, amounts, partners, dates etc. Just everything! And Logan...it´s urgently..."

"Ain´t it that always?" Logan playfully sighed.

"Seriously! Our perp doesn´t shrink back from killing thru the surroundings. One P.I. He almost stabbed dead..."

"Oops! Then your chances aren´t that bad to become number two, Mick!" Logan replied.

"Where as you forget, that I´m immortal. But not so the friends of my host!" Mick warned him.

"Your...host? I think, you´re in Toronto for Josh..." Logan sounded astonished.

"Correct! But I guess you have a clue, who´s my host...!"

"The one? This one, who _owns_ Toronto...?" the heard words sounded strangely disbelieving.

"Yup!"

"Fitzroy? _That_ Henry Fitzroy? I mean...son of Henry VIII, author of graphic novels etc. and so on...?"

"Even this one!"

"Wow! Then I´m naturally getting it!" A loud laughter came out of the cellphone, followed by: "I´ll get started immediately. I´ll call you as soon as I´ve results for you!"

"Thank you, Logan!"

"My stomach will thank you!"

Mick hung up with a shake of his head. "So, now we´ll have to wait and then..."

Suddenly Henry rushed around the desk, was at the movable wall within a mere second...

...to which Tony´s finger were desperately clinging, the young man´s face pale like a wall painted with chalk. Henry´s hands under his armpits prevented him from dropping to the ground, when his knees gave in under him. His body sagged against Henry who softly pulled him up.

"Tony! Why don´t you stay on the couch, when you aren´t well at all?" He shoved a strand back from the young man´s face, feeling the cold sweat, which was moistening his skin. His circulation had to be somewhat down.

"Henry..." Tony breathed with effort. "Bow...I´m damn dizzy...should tell the rug gonna stop jumpin´ my face..." he complained, when Henry gently placed him on the chair, which Mick had given free.

"Henry...when it´s something with dope...they´re a real pain in the ass, these guys...Once offed one of my pals...When ya get mixed up with them, they may have the nerve to put us on their hit list...Me, Coreen, Betty...Vicki got already almost killed off...God, shit...I´m completely afraid!" Tony pressed out.

Henry smelled his fear, felt when Tony was trembling. Not only by his weakened circulation.

"I know, Tony. It wouldn´t be reasonable when you won´t be in fear."

"Henry...ya gonna have to warn them. Not gonna outta the house or something like that!"

"I´m calling them, Tony, don´t worry! And here...nobody will get in here! Trust me. This badass won´t get to Vicki again or to you. So...and now lie down again, before you´ll pass out again, Tony..." Henry helped him back to the couch, covering him with the blanket. After a last view on Tony, Henry hurried into the bedroom, his cellphone at his ear, leaving Mick behind.

Vicki was still lying like he had bedded her. Her breath that was hard and fast, was the only sound in the dark room. He bent over her, waiting that somebody from the other end was answering his call.

"Dr. Rajani Mohadevan here..." Her voice sounded as if he had just rang her out of sleep. A casual look on the clock showed him 0:30 am. For sure not the usual time for calling people one barely knew.

"Good evening, Dr.! Henry Fitzroy. Please excuse me for calling you so late."

"Mr. Fitzroy! I´m remembering me...You have been in my lab with Vicki. The small girl, whose mother got killed..."

Sure, he hadn´t vamped her, like Tony always called it. Or neuralized.

"Dr., I need your help! More correctly...Vicki!"

"What´s up?" she immediately sounded concerned.

"Vicki is...She´s severely hurt! A suspect has stabbed her in the street...!"

"That´s what I´ve always been afraid of...cuz of the cases she always accepts." Mohadevan sounded very concerned. "Where´s she now? In a hospital?"

"No! At my home...!"

"Why didn´t you get her to a hospital? And...when did this happen?"

"Vicki had been attacked yesterday evening or night, when she was on her way to a meeting..."

"And then you are calling me not until tonight!" Why hadn´t he called her immediately? Had he taken leave of his senses?

"I didn´t know that she is hurt. Vicki has come to me not until tonight, Dr.!" he defended himself.

"Stabbed..."

"Yes, the attacker has caused her a deep cut in her belly with his weapon, some five inches long. And as far as I can evaluate it, she has lost much blood and she´s in a high fever. I´ve fetched a lot of pus from the wound and cleaned it, as far as possible. And Vicki has strong pain."

He heard Mohadevan´s sharp intake of breath.

"Then the wound got infected. She´ll need an antibiotic and infusions for liquid substitution. Normally she should be in a hospital. I don´t even know why Vicki has come to you. What has taken over her mind?" Dr. Mohadevan knew Vicki´s stubbornness all too well.

"Vicki meant, that the attacker might be able to get to her again in a hospital...I can´t give her under police protection and her Detective Celluci isn´t even in Toronto!"

She heard how angrily he pronounced the name.

"I know! He´s out for an on-the-job training. Mike has long deserved it...Does he know what has happened?"

"Detective Celluci isn´t the first choice on my call-list." Henry gave back.

"Doesn´t matter now! I´m coming over and will bring in everything, what I´ll need. Bandage material, infusions, an antibiotic."

"I even could barely make her swallowing these painkillers, which I got for her..." Henry threw in.

"Hopefully you didn´t give her any aspirin?!" When he...

"No!" Henry read the name which was printed on the small box and heard when she breathed with relief. "Okay! Give me your address, please, Mr. Fitzroy..."

Mohadevan wrote down what he gave her as an address.

"I´ll be at yours in one hour latest!"

"Good! I thank you so much, Dr. Mohadevan." He hung up, sighed deeply and bent over Vicki again.

Vicki gave a long moan and her fingers were trembling, when they were clinging around his hand.

"Hen...ry...Please...!" She tried to lift her head and Henry supported her neck, bringing a glass to her lips and he started to instill her some water.

"Drink, Vicki..."

She swallowed with effort, then she groaned loudly again.

"Henry! It...it...so hurts..."

"I know, Vicki! Help is on the way. Dr. Mohadevan is coming and she´ll bring in meds for you..." Henry stroked her temple.

"Ra...jani..." she whispered with a trembling voice.

"You´re severely hurt." As if she didn´t already know that! "Why only didn´t you go to a hospital...?"

"Ca...not!"

"I know. You won´t have to tell me, Victoria. I´m taking great risks with you, keeping you in here for your own safety..." When she would die here, it would be his guilt, because he hadn´t brought her over to a hospital. He was all too conscious of the risk which he was running with her...and he would forever be racked with guilt, he told to himself. His hand gently moved over the hot cheeks, stroking her. Unconsciously Vicki seemed to lean against his hand, as if she was searching for a soothing at his rather cool flesh. Her tongue moved over dry lips and she moaned indignantly.

Henry filled up the glass from a decanter with one hand, bringing it to her lips. Vicki drank, swallowed hard and he noticed, how much effort she needed for drinking alone, not to speak about other movements. Her eyes fell shut constantly again and he couldn´t tell, if she was only dozing off or if she actually passed out in between. Her heart was beating hard and fast, trying to pump the remaining blood through her feverish body and he asked himself, how she had made it through today at her home all alone.

Her private rooms were lying directly beside her office, those making it kinda home office.

Had she send Coreen home or hadn´t the girl noticed, in which condition Vicki was? The second seemed to be possible. Vicki often slept through the day after she had worked thru exhausting night shifts...one problem that came up when somebody was working with a vampire, Henry thought...and usually Coreen let her alone.

Shortly after Henry had instilled her the water, Vicki flagged in his arms.

"Vicki...?!" No reaction.

He hold his hand in front of her lips, feeling for her pulse. For mere seconds he hold his breath, then he could feel her hot breath and the irregular pulse wave.

Henry breathed out.

Vicki urgently needed liquids, infusions, to fill up her system. And the damn fever was additionally drying her out.

There was a knock at the door, such a low noise, that only Henry´s vampire hearing registered it.

Tony? Better not him as the young man wasn´t even steady on his own legs in the moment.

"Yes, please...come in..."

Very silent one of the door wings was opened and Mick´s head appeared in the opening. Henry looked up to him.

"May I...?"

Henry gave a short nod and Mick entered the bedroom, approaching the bed and he bent over Vicki. His voice was so low when he spoke, so that he won´t disturb her in any case.

"How´s Ms. Nelson?"

"To be honest: crappy! She´s in a high risen fever, is barely responsive. You can´t ask her any questions now, St. John..."

Henry got up and disappeared in the bathroom behind his bedroom and within a few moments he was back with a bowl of water and a washcloth.

"A doctor, a friend of her, is on her way...she´ll be here in less than an hour..."

"Okay! Do you have somebody, who can care for her at daytime and who´s first of all able to protect her too? I´m meaning...cuz you´re sleeping at daytime, Mr. Fitzroy." Mick threw in.

"These rooms are utterly safe, this you can believe me. I have very massive doors, alone for my own protection...Beside the suspect probably doesn´t know the connection between her and me. I´m a dark horse for him. Here he won´t be searching for her..." Henry replied without looking up from Vicki.

"Good...!" After a long view on Vicki with listening to her life functions, Mick went on: "Will this doctor also care for her at daytime...?"

"Well, rather less! Dr. Mohadevan is a forensic. She works at the TMP as the Chief Forensic..."

"Forensic? Oops! Do you believe her to be the right one...?" Basically forensics got a very thoroughly medical education, which enabled them to analyze tinniest medical details, but normally one connected a forensic with coping with dead persons, not the living...

"Dr. Mohadevan and Vicki have long years worked together. They know each other pretty well, are virtually friends too. Beside she´s highly experienced and it looked to me a better option, as to consult an unknown doctor. Above all they have to announce injuries caused by any violence...And I trust Dr. Mohadevan with keeping it flying low under the radar..."

Vicki moaned lowly and Henry looked into her eyes. But they kept closed and Henry caught himself that he shot a nervous look at the clock on the nightstand. Today time seemed to be creeping. But he knew that the doctor needed some time to get everything she needed together. When afterwards anything would be missing, it would cost more time in the end, than to wait now and to show some patience.

Henry thought it over.

Daytime care? Vicki would need this urgently. Then he got an idea: He would call Coreen to get her over here. And this without her going to Vicki´s office before. Too dangerous! Also for Coreen.

"Can you pick up Ms. Fennel, her assistance, with a cap? That is more unsuspicious when you´ll accompany her over here early in the morning, before dawn. After all you can move around freely at day, in difference to me. And I won´t like to let her drive alone, Mr. St. John."

Mick nodded. "Do you have her address?"

Henry got up from the bed´s edge, searched through her bag and skimmed through her notebook. He found fast, what he was searching for.

To search thru Vicki´s bag was a necessary indiscretion now, which he had committed the first time only to learn, with whom he had to do and for his own safety. But in the moment yet, Vicki was unable to help him, so that he had to search for the needed information on his own. He gave Mick a written note with Coreen´s address.

Then he sat down again on the bed at Vicki´s side.

_The fog was thick and gray. Was waving around her, crawling coldly over her belly while flames licked around her flesh, digging into her intestines and crawling up to her throat like red snakes. She desperately wanted to cling into the gray, but icy claws were clinging around her wrists, pulling her arms away and she cried out. Coldness was laying onto her chest, her throat, subsiding the fire and the flames receded. In the wavering, gray mass a figure appeared, dressed in a wide coat. What...?_

_She couldn´t identify the face, because it was melting into the darkness. Hands like claws grabbed for her and she wanted to draw back, but the thing whirled her against the wall._

_A glowing pain was shooting through her to her deepest core and screaming, she fell back to the ground._

_The blood was gushing from her, glowing hot, like a red avalanche and the marks on her wrists flared up. The flames were eating their way up her arms and then it became dark finally..._

Vicki reared up halfway, pressing out agonizing groans, then she fell back in the cushions.

"Oh dear Lord, Vic!" Henry groaned.

When finally would Dr. Mohadevan be here?

**Anywhere down**

...in hell, Astaroth sat grinning on his throne, that was framed with skulls. Skulls which mummified mouths were opened in silent screams. Their last scream. And when Astaroth was listening, he could still hear the terrifying noises, which had died away centuries ago for the ears of the human critters. Because he was, like his opponents...God, and his angels who hadn´t accompanied his rebellion...timeless.

And timeless was also his adversary in flesh and blood: Henry Fitzroy.

Who had, not all too long ago, prevented him from finally manifesting among the humans. But this would be only a temporarily victory of this bastard of Henry VIII. And in the moment, his chances were pretty good to get rid of the vampire, he thought. Sometimes it were those out of the own lines, who could break one´s neck or to do someone in.

His gofer Norman, which he had equipped with the temporarily gift of shape shifting and the invisibility, though that was rather a melting into the shadows, had recently fulfilled an order for him;

In the proximity of Toronto, Norman had found an old enemy of Fitzroy: a priest, former Spanish Great Inquisitor, who hated the vampire at least to the same degree like him. That priest was so fanatic that it had been an easy task to rake his rage again. Some insinuations, an aspirated name and the man´s rage had been fed like a flame by gasoline.

Which useful coincidence that right now, out of Fitzroy´s self claimed territory, a woman was hanging out, whom he had created with his cursed blood himself. A vampiress called Delphine Guilleaume. Norman had led the priest onto her trace and this pretty lunatic guy would get his hands on her! A bit of torture...and then she would be all too willing, to deliver the information to this priest, where Fitzroy was hiding...

Astaroth already rubbed his hands with pleasure at the thought of his speedy victory. Additionally his spies had delivered the information, that an Asian ring of drug dealers was about to flood the addict´s brains with a new poison. These dumbass guys were always searching for the newest kick, the ultimate trip. Stupid only, that so many of them were biting the dust so fast before they´d go completely mad. But humans weren´t that perfectly in creating new poisons than him. Next time he himself would throw something among the eagerly requesting folks!

And that the corpses were so fast looking, as if they had been roasted in his limbo...this made Astaroth all a bit jealousy. This idea could have come from himself, he thought with an evil grin. But possibly there was a chemist to be found, whom he might give a swift kick in the pants. Corpses were always so much confusing the earthlings. How would it turn out, when he would let the bodies burst into flames, seemingly out of nowhere?

I have to ask Xaphan for it. He´s just my specialist for the category _spontaneous human_ _combustion_!

But at first Astaroth pleasurably leaned back on his throne to wait for new messages.

And yes, he had so much time...

**Renaissance Plaza**

"Mr. Fitzroy, I will extend my search further on now! I´ve already observed the office building tonight, in which the Johnson Ltd. & Co has its offices, but our suspect obviously hadn´t been there then... Just before sunrise I´ll come back over here with Ms. Fennel..."

"Good! Let me thank you first of all, Mr. St. John. I´m really looking forward to our partnership!" Henry reached him his hand and this time it was an open and honestly handshake. Mick wished him a good night and left.

At least the agreement seemed to turn out successfully. It will show, how good he really is in investigation, Henry thought, when the door in the hallway was closed.

Greg was sitting at his reception desk and studied the sports results. His brows knitted skeptically, when he found out how close it was standing for the Maple Leafs. He looked up not until, when anything was placed with a thunk on the ground in front of his desk.

There was a woman of slight build standing in front of him, by her features from India, who has placed down a large bag.

"Good evening, Sir! My name is Dr. Rajani Mohadevan. And I´m expected by Mr. Fitzroy..."

"Good evening, Dr.! Oh, are you announced to him...?" Greg, the doorman asked politely.

"I thought that Mr. Fitzroy just may have informed you...?"

"Not yet. A second please, Madam! I´ll call up qickly..."

Greg shortly talked to Henry, then he directed to the glass doors. "There are the elevators! Please take cabin B, Mr. Fitzroy is expecting you upstairs..." Then Greg came around his reception desk, grabbed over it pressing a button and then he took up the heavy bag for her.

"May I help you, Madam?! This bag is really heavy..." With a smile he carried the bag into the elevator, bidding her farewell and returned to his desk.

Dr. Mohadevan pushed the button to the 14th floor and the doors closed. The elevator gently started to move upwards. The Renaissance Plaza was one of the expensive residence addresses in Downtown Toronto. So Mr. Fitzroy must own a considerable asset. Vicki had indicated that he had a large condo and would be working as a graphic artist. She had shortly met him and learned to know, when Vicki had been working on the Cobb-Institute fatality. Sarah´s mother.

_To be continued_


	9. Chapter 7 A First Long Night

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 7**_

_Morpheus- the god of sleep_

_Sometimes you want some more time, a long night, that will bring you the release of sleep and sweet dreams, but all you´ll get is a night in which you can´t wait for the break of dawn..._

**A First Long Night**

Upstairs in the hallway, she met a tall, young man, which was coming around the corner. He gave her a short greeting, looked at her with a smile for a moment and then he hurried for the elevator, in which he disappeared. She led her steps to the _#1407_, the condo number which Mr. Fitzroy had given her.

The door stood already open and he opened it wider, taking the bag from her hands and putting it down in the hallway.

"Good evening! Dr. Rajani Mohadevan...we have..."

The door was closed so swift in her back, almost without a noise. He must have moved behind her, logically, but in less than a mere second he was in front of her again...as if he never had moved. Goddess, he must have seen her surprised facial expression. But he didn´t mind anything, when she caught up her sentence, which she had stopped in astonishment.

_Point One: Ain´t he moving around a _bit_ too fast?_

But maybe it had only been an optical illusion, due to her slight nervousness.

"...we have talked to each other an hour before..." she finished her introduction with a smile. Her heartbeat slowed down again.

Henry smiled, but he looked very tensed though. Deep concerns were written in his young and how she had to confess...pretty face. He had almost shoulder long, brown curls and cerulean eyes, was wearing a dark red hoody sweater and blue jeans. He has to be in his early twenties, she thought, no more than some twenty two, twenty three. Graphic art must be a successful business to make for a living. So, well...

"Fitzroy. Henry Fitzroy. Good evening, Dr. I´m glad that you could come over here so fast..." he directed to the bedroom. "Over here, please..." Henry took up her bag.

Mohadevan looked around in astonishment. The living room was of large measures, a working area was divided off and high windows from the ceiling down to the ground allowed a free view over Toronto.

The bedroom was lying in semidarkness and on the large bed she could make out Vicki´s shape, who was covered with a light blanket. Henry switched on the ceiling lamp to give her the best light. Mohadevan stepped to the bedside and pulled back the blanket. Vicki was only wearing a bra and a slip, a thick layer of bandages was fixed on her upper belly. Vicki´s eyes were closed.

"Mr. Fitzroy...?"

"Henry! Please...!"

"Good. Henry, do you have taken her temperature?" Mohadevan asked when she put her hand at Vicki´s throat.

"No, unfortunately I don´t have a clinical thermometer...But she is glowing hot. I´ve instilled her as much water as possible..."

Mohadevan nodded and got a thermometer from her bag, shoving it under Vicki´s tongue without her giving so much as any reaction. When the thermometer bleeped, she pulled it out and read the scale.

"Crap! it´s some 103.5°F...That´s pretty high, but it´s no wonder, when you, as you´ve said, fetched so much pus from the wound." Her dark skinned face showed deep sorrow. "I´ve to look for this...but here it´s too dark and I can´t work so good when she´s on the bed. Is there another possibility, Henry?"

"Yes! Of course! My kitchen. There´s a large table standing in it and over the table there is a bright fluorescent tube..."

"Fine! Please help me to carry Vicki over. Guess she isn´t up to walking, even for a short distance..." the doctor began and wanted to grab for Vicki´s legs. "I´ll take..."

"You won´t have to. I´ll already do!" Henry interrupted her. "When you might only keep open the doors for me..."

"Of...course..." she stammered, when he, seemingly effortless, took Vicki up on his arms in front of her eyes, lifting her off the bed and carrying her to the double door. Vicki was of the same height as him, slim but muscular and he carried her with an easiness as if she was a kid. It didn´t seem to cost him even the slightest effort...

_Point two! He seemed to be extraordinarily strong!_

Anything was strange on this young man. This she had already noticed on him, when he had been in her laboratory. The way he was moving, his eyes which she reminded: this look that seemed to go down to the depths of her soul and the eyes which had appeared to be almost black for mere seconds. Too black for the light conditions, though they were, like she could clearly see, cerulean... As a forensic she was educated to look out for the tinniest details.

With only a few steps, or was he only extremely fast...? he was in the kitchen, indicating the light´s switch with a nod of his head, while he put Vicki down on the table.

The lamp above them lit up, when Dr. Mohadevan dimmed it up to full brightness.

"Ah! That´s way better...!" she commented with satisfaction.

Vicki groaned when glaring sunlight burned through her closed lids. She tried to toss around, before the flooding light would set her flesh ablaze. Cold air was streaming over her glowing flesh. How could fire be that cold? Fire was hot! And it burned her from inside out. She wanted to scream but all what came from her dried out throat, was a strange staccato. With a croaking sound she forced her lids open, her burning hot fingers moved over what she was lying on.

Hard. Cool. Smooth like polished rock.

God! Who had her taken from her bed...?

After a couple of trying she forced her hurting lids open, turned her head to the side, when fingers were laid on both her temples, gently holding her head.

"Shh...be quiet, Vicki...it´s all good! Stay lying calmly..."

Henry. His voice. Soft. Gentle.

"He...Hen...ry...help...me" she croaked. Her voice sounded hoarse, raw to her own ears. But Henry was understanding her though.

"Whe...where...?" she groaned.

"I had to put you on the kitchen table again. Dr. Mohadevan is here..."

Rajani´s face was appearing above her. Blue laboratory shirt, gloves.

"Stay calm, Vicki! I´ll look for your wound..." Vicki heard her familiar voice.

"I...have. It...so HURTS..." Groans.

"Okay, Vicki!" Mohadevan filled a syringe, simply putting the empty glass tube into his hand.

Morphine...10 milligrams, he read on it.

"I´ll give you something against the pain, no fear, Vicki..."

"That´s pretty strong, Dr.!" Henry threw in. She nodded.

"Yes. But I think that Vicki has strong pain and I don´t wanna take any risk with her when I´ll have to work on her wound probably. At least I´ll have to probe that and she won´t stay thru this without an analgesic..." With one hand she stroked over Vicki´s temple, then she grabbed her arm, stretching it gently.

Vicki groaned.

"It´s good, Vicki. I´ll have gotten it in a moment. Then your pain will subsiding..."

"Ca...can´t an...more!" Vicki mumbled glazedly. "Please...help me...!" Tears were running down her cheeks now. Henry laid his hand at her temple, placing the other one on her wrist. His fingers caressed the hot skin. Obviously the transport to the kitchen had newly flared up her pain.

"It´ll become better immediately, Vicki..." he said with a soft voice.

Vicki stared into his eyes, sighed and twitched, when the needle went into her vein. Her muscles tensed, then she sighed deeply and extended.

"It´s all good, Vicki...it´s already in..." Dr. Mohadevan calmed her down.

Like a hammer blow the morphine flooded in her arm, washing over her head and seemed to pull her down into a vortex. She felt heat, followed by a cold wave, behind which a leaden heaviness was spreading over her whole body. Vicki groaned, startled, when she had the feeling to fall. Her fingers clung to Henry´s hand in a reflex. Her reaction was typically to the stuff and he knew it by own experience. He felt when her muscles relaxed, when finally the pain was subsiding.

"Is there still any pain, Vicki?" he asked. "Vicki...?"

"N...no..." she mumbled. Her voice was heavy and washy by the morphine. Henry nodded to Dr. Mohadevan.

"It´s working now...I think, you can get started now, Dr.!"

Goodness, she was so totally exhausted. Henry had never before seen her in such a constitution. Vicki was a dynamical, young woman. Good Lord, in relation to him almost everybody was young, he thought. She was a pretty tough type, but this here was even her and her iron will setting definitely borders. He asked himself how much blood she had lost. In case of this injury...she has had more luck than minds, that the weapon didn´t hit her abdominal artery!

Mohadevan pulled out the cannula, then she connected an infusion set with a bottle of Ringer* solution ( * _a solution of minerals as sodium, potassium, calcium in water, used for liquid substitution) _and inserted an indwelling cannula in Vicki´s back of the hand.

"Okay, so let´s take care first for liquid substitution..." she reached the bottle to Henry, when she opened the line. "Keep that up please...a couple of minutes, then you can hang that from the closet there..." Henry nodded and didn´t let his view go off Vicki, while he stepped aside, when the forensic removed the bandage.

"When Crowley finds out, what I´m doing here...I´ll get in more than just trouble..." she mumbled while she gave the wound a first closer look.

"Don´t worry...I won´t blurt it out..." Henry smiled, then his expression got serious again.

The area around the wound was reddened and swollen. Mohadevan took up a thin probe, looked, just for control, into Vicki´s face and then she started to probe the wound. Henry´s face tensed, when blood was soaking from the wound again. The smell of the fresh blood made the vampire stir deep within him again. For a moment he thought of Mick St. John´s words...about medics and blood. For seconds his eyes closed, then he regained control. Unintentionally he growled in the next moment, when the piercing smell of pus was mixing into that of the blood. Dr. Mohadevan looked shortly to the side, to Henry, when she heard the suppressed sound. She knitted her brows. What was going on with him?

Henry noticed her side view.

"Crap, that´s festering again...!" he hastily shoved in.

"All okay with you, Henry?" she asked.

"Yup! I´m okay!"

She nodded and turned back to Vicki, grabbing a scalpel from the kitchen counter and began to clean up the wound.

"You´ve told me that you had been on this once before..."

"Yes, some three hours ago..." He had cleaned up Vicki´s wound as thoroughly as possible and now there was pus again! Bad sign, he thought inwardly.

"That´s a very strong inflammation! I´ll hang her an antibiotic additionally, the very moment I´m ready with the debridement. Who knows how contaminated the weapon had been...This looks very irregular, so as if this has not been any knife..." Mohadevan mumbled while she removed new pus from the wound.

"Vicki described the weapon as kinda talon or claw, probably from an animal...as far as I could get any information at all from her in her current state. She arrived here tonight, in the early evening...and tumbled into my arms in the hallway."

"Well, nice prospects!" Dr. Mohadevan mumbled more to herself than directing it to Vicki or Henry. "By this kinda weapon, an infection is practically inevitable."

Alternately Henry watched the doctor and Vicki, ready to intervene when Vicki should be showing any signs of pain. But Vicki was calmly lying on the table, not moving anyway. Finally she seemed to be benumbed enough. He reminded how finicky Vicki had been, when he once had accompanied her to a doctor, who had given her a regular tetanus vaccination. Vicki was barely afraid of any opponent, but Vicki and syringes...an absolute No-Go. When he had been hurt, she had offered him her arm without hesitation, so he could feed from her. What for he had to open the vein with his teeth. Why so, is she such afraid of a small needle? He asked himself. And now it had only been possible, because her pain was so strong, that she hadn´t seen any other option then to endure the injection.

Vicki moaned lowly, obviously being halfway asleep. She had to be plenty muzzy from the morphine injection, not to say, being totally stoned. Henry had his free hand at her temple, his fingers were stroking over her head in steady movements.

Suddenly Vicki twitched. Henry bent over her, looked into her eyes, his voice, being low, became deeper.

"Easy, Vicki...that doesn´t hurt yet...stay simply lying calmly..." His hand laid onto her forehead, gently, heavy. Vicki moaned lowly and her breath slowed down a bit and he could feel her muscles relax a bit again.

Mohadevan lifted her head, looked up to him.

There it was again!

His eyes...no mistake about that!

The usual cerulean she had seen before, had turned into black. No other color, but his pupils had become so dilated, that there was only a ring of deepest cobalt blue remaining of his iris. When his lips moved, she saw a hint of rather pointed teeth. His voice had gotten a deep resonance, when he spoke to Vicki in a low voice.

Here and now, the light wasn´t playing tricks on her.

That hadn´t been so moments before...

For seconds she looked at the man in fascination, who was standing beside her, obviously trying to calm Vicki down. What she could see, was definitely..._not human_. His eyes, his teeth.

He looked like one of these beings from the movies...

...Vampire!

It shot through her head. Oh goodness!

Pull yourself together, Rajani! You´ve already seen so much in your career, what can´t be explained rationally. He won´t do you any harm! And he won´t harm Vicki! He only tries to help her. Irrespective what he is. You´ve already seen that umpteenth times. In the movies. And now such a being is standing beside you...

In the movies: yes.

In reality and in person...no.

She stole a peep at him from the side. From proximity he was...overwhelming! Then Henry turned his head and his look was directly turned on her. Mohadevan looked into his night black eyes. For seconds she had the feeling of dizziness, had the feeling to be lost in these dark depths. Her heart was beating faster. At the same time a great calmness was coming from him.

Then he slightly smiled and turned his attention back to Vicki again.

Dr. Mohadevan swallowed, cleared her throat and shook her head, then she turned back to the wound. She dabbed the blood away, adjusted the edged of the wound to each other and put some pads on it.

"I will not do stitches on the wound now, so the pus can flow freely from it. This is very deep and the wound is very irregular. Vicki has great luck, that only the belly muscles are hurt and that the weapon hasn´t gone deeper." She was glad to keep to the professionalism of her work. This was fixing her in the here and now, helping her to concentrate on her work and her patient. She cleaned Vicki´s abdominal wall from blood, fixed the pads and grabbed for Vicki´s wrist, counting.

Ninety four contrary one hundred eight before.

Vicki´s heartbeat had calmed down a bit under the morphine and the infusion, because her system was getting liquid, what supported her circulation.

"Her heart is beating very fast..." Henry meant calmly, his eyes being cerulean again.

"Yes. Uhm, hear...I mean, can you hear it? Easily...?" The doctor directed to her ear, to indicate that she meant, that he was hearing it without laying his ear on her chest.

Henry nodded.

"Yes. I can hear Vicki´s heartbeat. And yours too, Dr.!"

"Oops!" Mohadevan felt a bit embarrassed. Henry smiled.

"You´re a bit excited..." Pause. Then: "You´re knowing Vicki already rather long, aren´t you...?" he threw in to take off some of the tension from her, which his presence might have caused her.

His...true...nature flashing up.

When she was very near to him, it was barely inevitable, that she got it, what was going on with him, when he was making use of his vampire skills on Vicki. And he only credited it to Vicki´s helpless condition, that she had reacted to him at all and that he could break through to her.

Mohadevan´s reaction wasn´t unusual. He knew the effects he was having on mortals, especially women, when he let slip his nature to the surface. Unless he manipulated their memory afterwards. But with her it was the same, like with Celluci.

Analyst´s brain.

But Henry felt instinctively that he could trust her.

This woman has seeing eyes, she understands. And she would remain silent!

First of all the doctor was a scientist and by this used to register facts, sort them in and accept them as such. Also when this wasn´t the case in other persons.

...as Detective Celluci.

Inwardly Henry groaned. The Detective and his spontaneous coming out last week. Their relation seemed to be developing rather difficult. And now he had to accompany with another vampire too, whose case was intertwined with Vicki´s case. The case that had almost become dangerous for her life...

"Doctor..." he took Dr. Mohadevan to the side, out of Vicki´s hearing range. "How does it look? Will Vicki...survive that...? I mean..." His look told everything. She saw his tortured, sorrowful expression. Vicki really seemed to mean a lot to him.

"The wound itself isn´t life threatening by the depth and the position. The attacker luckily missed her abdominal artery! I´ll set up now an infusion with an antibiotic. But we´ll have to get this infection under control!" Dr. Mohadevan explained.

"Before it´ll spread over her whole organism..." Henry added. He was understanding all too well what she was indicating. He had already seen humans dying from wound fever, sepsis. The forensic silently nodded. Henry verified that as a Yes.

"Uhm..." the doctor cleared her throat. Time to confront Henry with a point that didn´t mean anything to _him_. He looked at her.

"Henry...following fact: The infusion is running some four hours. What leads to the question: When had Vicki on the toilet for the last time?" By his facial expression, she could tell that it took him a second before he got it. He hadn´t thought about it before as vampires didn´t get rid of waste.

"Here? Still not! When she had been on the box at her home? Dunno..." he shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay. Vicki can´t walk around, the less now with the morphine. I don´t want to set up a catheter on her. You may understand..."

"You mean, if I can bring Vicki...to the toilet? My home is completely equipped. I have two bathrooms. One is here, behind the bedroom, the other one over in the hallway beyond the kitchen." He slightly smiled. He wanted to bend over Vicki to prepare the transport, when his hearing caught the ringing of a cellphone, which was coming from the living room.

Not that as well! He angrily told to himself.

It was Vicki´s ring tone. Coreen?

Henry went into the living room, digging through Vicki´s bag for some seconds.

The caller-ID showed...

...Celluci.

What of all things did this detective want?

And when he was calling Vicki on her cellphone, one might locate the place, what would the attacker lead over here. In a hurry he scribbled the call number on a sheet of paper, then he shut off the cell completely without answering the call. He could imagine that the Detective at the other end of the line would be literally bursting, because Vicki obviously simply choked him off! Henry went to his landline phone which he was running with an answering machine. He dialed Celluci´s call number.

"Mike Celluci here! Tell me, Vicki, why did you choke me off?" Mike started without even taking a breath. His tone was acid.

"It´s not Vicki here, Detective! It´s me, Henry Fitzroy!"

"Fitzroy! What the...?" He swallowed down the rest. "I should have heard it by the lack of breathing! Ya guys ain´t breathing! Don´t you!" Celluci gave his imaginations about vampires fuel to the fire. Henry might have smiled about it in another, less tensed situation, but... Henry didn´t comment on it neither, nor would the detective have left him any time to, because he went on without a stop. "I wanna talk to Vicki! Why am I having you on the line?" His tone didn´t become calmer.

"Vicki currently doesn´t see herself in the state to talk to you, Detective!" Henry intentionally made it sound coolly. In the moment he had God knows other things to do than to struggle with the Detective.

"What does that mean: currently not in the state? Has she hung up? Tell her, I only wanted to call her, to touch base with her from Vancouver, after she obviously recently has...What the hell?! That´s none of your business, _Fitz...roy_!" He emphasized the Fitzroy in a way, that made clear what he thought of Henry, respectively his parentage. Henry gulped for air for a moment. Now the Detective was really impertinent. Calling it impolite would be an understatement in the moment. In his past time, he would have coped in quite another way with a subordinate...

"To make it clear to you! I have shut off her cellphone, Sergeant Detective Celluci! And to make clear something else: I recommend you to apply a politer tone!"

He heard Mike literally choke at the other end. Not swallowing. Choking!

"I´m not your alternate doormat, Detective. And Vicki didn´t do you anything! Alas!" Henry grinned when anything was forcefully crashing into a wall at the other end of the connection. For mere seconds, inarticulate sounds were coming from the receiver. The Detective already had to have a head red as a turkey. Southern temper, Henry tried to tell himself. Vicki had told him how she and Celluci could go all hell loose.

"So, Fitzroy! I wanna know yet, why you´ve switched off Vicki´s cellphone and what´s going on with her! Get her on the phone! Then she can tell me herself, why she doesn´t want to talk to me!"

"That´s currently impossible, Detective. And I insistently wanna beg you..." God, he had to force himself for the word _beg_. "...not to call Vicki on her cellphone over the next time!"

"What shall that mean!" Mike snarled.

What the hell was going on there? How dared Fitzroy to take out? Had he already completely pooped in Vicki´s brain and had her completely at his disposal? That was exactly what he had been imaging. So much for vampire and so on! His fingers were clawing around the ball pen and he had to restrain himself not to shout into the phone.

Mike breathed hard, then he angrily went on:

"Once again, Fitzroy! What does that mean?" Mike now went all cop interrogation-tone.

"That means what it means, Detective! You can reach me on my landline or on my mobile number. Vicki not!" Henry spoke as calm as possible, keeping himself under control not to turn on the verbal provocation, which Celluci now tried to play out. He was aware, that this would provoke Mike even more.

"And why not Vicki? What shall this? When she´s at your home, then you´d better get her on the phone, goddamn. You aren´t that friggin Count Dracula, that you might cope with the humans around you, like it comes to your royal mind, Fitzroy!"

"Vicki currently can´t talk to you..._Detective_!" Henry almost growled now. He already regretted it that he had reacted on the Detective´s call at all. But for Vicki´s well-being and her safety, he had to make this call now.

Nothing was coming for long seconds. The detective seemed to stop short when obviously another thought came to his mind. When Vicki was not available... When he spoke now, he sounded...concerned.

"Is...Vicki is...all okay?!"

When Henry had switched off her cellphone, then he must have a reason for it. Were there any security interests? Interests which affected Vicki? Was she in danger? Cellphones which were called could be located as long as they were not switched off. The police had often enough located cellphones and their users this way for countless times. Mike felt an icy shudder running down his spine.

"Where is Vicki?" Mike asked and Henry could hear that the Detectives voice was having a slight trembling under it. You can´t hide it from me, Detective, Henry thought. A sign, that the cop was coming down to a more reasonable level now. Maybe there was...

"Vicki is with me, at my home, Detective! Don´t worry!"

"At...yours?!"

"Yes."

"That´s exactly what I´m worrying about, Fitzroy! At yours!"

"I can´t tell you more about it in the moment!"

"Fitzroy, I warn you! Dare you to do Vicki any harm or anything happens to her...You gonna believe me! My first step back on the ground will be leading me to you then! And you can imagine, what I´ll be doing with you..._vampire_!"

"Probably you´ll drive a stake in my heart." Henry replied.

"Yup! Namely the largest one I´m able to get my hands on that fast!"

"That I can imagine, Detective! Good night!"

The Celluci-eruption Vesuvius´ style got missed by Henry, because he simply hung up on Mike..

Henry felt his own heart racing, something that rarely happened. For seconds he stared at his phone, giving off an animalistic growl and then he looked out of the large window, to get his thoughts back in a row and to calm down, before he´d go back into the kitchen.

This Detective of the Toronto Homicide wasn´t only one problem, he was a whole collection of them.

When Henry passed by the couch, Tony´s head was peeping out from behind the back rest. He looked at him from drowsy eyes.

"Goodness, Henry! You´ve really gotten it loose, ain´t you...I would say...what has been on?!"

"I´m sorry, Tony. That was a very difficult and...uncomfortable call. But it had to be." Henry meant to him. "Maybe it´ll be better when you´ll move over to the guest room..." He fumbled for the bunch of keys in the pocket of his jeans."this one, with the red notch! Make yourself comfortable, cuz you´ll stay here until that case is closed. Everything else would be too dangerous. Under no circumstances I want the killer to get to you or Ms. Fennel..."

"Wow! Seems really to be burning hot crap...Had this been Mike just now? Detective Celluci?"

Henry shortly nodded.

"I know him! He´s all a toughie...can get terribly pissy, but he...as such he´s quite okay, Henry! Is one of the righteous cops. The good ones. I guess, one has to be really tough in that job...just ya don´t wanna go mad...Always murder only and such shit..."

Henry tried to smile; "I can understand that, Tony..." Luckily, Celluci would the whole week still being in Vancouver. For Henry´s taste sufficiently far away enough, when it even had to be Canada. Still the next territory owner was more closely. Montreal.

When he felt himself under control again, he entered the kitchen, stepped to the table. A view on Vicki showed him, that she was barely awake anymore. Morphine. To get her to the toilet might become difficult...

**Vancouver**

Mike has scarcely hung up, when, after a look into the lobby of the hotel, where officers from whole Canada were hanging out, immediately dialed Coreen´s call number.

Maybe she was knowing, what was going on with Vicki. It was already late, but mostly Vicki´s assistant was available at this hour too.

"Coreen Fennel. Good evening!"

"Mike Celluci here. Hello, Ms. Fennel..."

"Are you calling from Vancouver? I´ve been over there with friends...two years ago. We´ve been there with a mobile home..." she began.

"Stop! Stop, that´s all good and for sure nice, Ms. Fennel. But the reason I´m calling...What´s going on with Vicki? I can´t reach her!" Not necessary to tell her, that the royal bastard had blocked him off. Strategical reasons.

"So, doesn´t Henry know, where she is? Mostly they are working on a case together, are on a stake out." Coreen supposed.

"I´ve just already talked to our house-and-stomach vampire...Vicki is obviously at his home, but in no case he´ll get her on the phone or let her call me or whatsoever, what the heck!"

"I don´t understand that too. I´ve been in the office today and Vicki had gone to bed. Obviously she has slept the whole day. I´ve only placed at note at her bedside, that I´ll chuck the office at daytime."

"Have you been talking to her tonight?"

"No. When I looked after her, in the evening, she was sleeping. Then I´m gone, just not to disturb her sleep." Coreen explained. "But when she´s with Henry, nothing can happen...Henry will already watch over her..."

Mike sighed. "Wish, I´d have _your_ trust!"

"Oh, Henry is...he´s amazing!" Coreen had absolutely no doubts about Henry´s skills and his candid intentions. This Mike noticed all to distinctly. Oh goodness! Had this guy already gotten everybody under his spell?

"I might drive over to Henry, perhaps I´ll meet her there. Then I can inform you later on." she suggested.

"Okay! But think of a reasonable pretense! And...be careful! This man is a vampire!" Mike warned her.

"Alas! I´m not afraid of him! Au contraire...!" Coreen cheerfully chirped. "Till later..."

"Okay. And thank you. Have a nice evening..."

Mike groaned inwardly. Pretty frustrated he finished the call and went over to the hotel´s bar. He sat down at the bar beside colleagues from Ottawa, ordering a Guinness. In the moment nothing was left over to him, but to wait until at least Coreen would call back, when already Vicki and her vampire seemed to deny any cooperation. That vampires were mystery-monger was making sense to him. He asked, but what had come to Vicki´s mind...

Had he done anything to her, that she suddenly blocked him off. They had been arguing often, not to call it quarreling with each other. The shouting duels of these both top investigators of the TMP had been infamous. But they had been an unbeatable team, when it came to the crime solution rate.

Since she was hanging out with this Henry Fitzroy, she was leaving him out. Vicki seemed only to use him when it was about information, which she won´t get to since she had left the forces.

Angrily he poured the beer into his throat, then he ordered a small snack to calm down his stomach.

**Toronto**

Henry bent over Vicki. Her breath was stroking fast and hot over his face.

"Vicki? VICKI...!" he tried it. There was a low groaning.

Vicki was feeling like she was hovering. At least she didn´t feel her friggin belly anymore. She heard steps, swift, low noised. Tissue was rustling around her and when she tried to react to the voice that what...? Yes, somebody called her name...she wanted to shout here, but all what she brought out was an unintelligible groaning. There was bright light above her that made her close her eyes again in a reflex, when she tried to force her lids open. I only wanna sleep...Please, let me sleep...

But the voice was adamantly.

"Vicki, please! Stay awake...! I know that you´ve gotten a strong analgesic. But I´ve only to bring you over to the toilet shortly!" Henry pressed on her.

"Ca...ca..n´t...wal..." the rest of the syllables were completely washed. Her brain tried to work on what he said to her, finally giving up. Toilet? God, she was lying...kitchen table. He´d filled her up with water. Was good for thirst. But contrary to her, Henry must not go to the toilet. She could stay lying here. But that would end up in a little, embarrassing catastrophe. Perhaps...when she would fall in sleep again, the urgent feeling would pass by...

"Vicki, I have no other choice. I´m sorry. When the antibiotic is running into you, you can´t go to the toilet for some four hours. And you´ve gotten lots of water!" he reminded her.

"...know...know...ca not...am...so tired...please, Henry..." her voice trailed away.

"I know. I´ll bring you over. We´ll get that managed, don´t worry, Vicki...all okay. All will be good."

God, she was so tired...why didn´t Henry let her sleep finally? Only some sleep. Then everything would all come by itself. That had always been so.

"Is there still pain, Vicki?" He looked at her, her lids were sinking down with a sigh. She was slipping off again. Too much morphine. "VICKI! Dear! Stay awake! Only for some minutes...please, Vic!" His voice was insistent, begging, but determined.

Vicki mumbled anything, looked at him from halfway closed lids, then he head sank back to the side again. Henry shook his head: "I´m sorry, Vic. Even so then. That now will have to be..."

Carefully he grabbed under Vicki´s shoulders, lifting up her upper body. Good, she didn´t groan. He shoved his other arm under the hollows of her knees. The heat of her legs even went through his sleeve, when he carefully lifted her up from the table. Dr. Mohadevan took up the infusion bottle and with the load on his arms, he started his way to the bathroom.

"Wha...what? Where...?" Vicki mumbled, when her head sagged against his shoulder.

"Do you need any help?" the doctor offered, when she kept the bathroom door open for him.

"Thank you, Dr.! But I guess, I can handle that...though it´s some time ago in my case, but that´ll do..." Henry smiled and placed Vicki on the toilet basin. Mohadevan left the room.

Watching Vicki while she was passing water, would be too much of it though. The situation was already uncomfortable enough for her. This here was something, when she hadn´t the strength in the moment, to get things handled by her pure will like she wanted. In her stubbornness that to be already hard enough for her. She knew how much Vicki hated it, when things weren´t running her way. Especially when it came to her body who simply denied her.

Vicki sighed indignantly.

"Keep hold on me, Vic. I´ll hold you..." Henry maneuvered her slip down, holding up the bottle when he kept one arm around her shoulder. Unintentionally he had to smirk, when he thought back to his mortal time. Modern plumbing was a definite improvement in relation to chamber pots and jakes. Vampires hadn´t to get rid of stuff anymore and inns, to be seen as good options for the simple intake of meals, had its advantages. Disadvantageous were the results of plenty of beer and alcohol consumption by the guests, what was ending in miserable conditions of the alleys around the inn due to the lack of toilets. He could remind the smell all too vividly. And he wasn´t up to find equal things in his mattress.

"Vicki! Vicki!" he called her in a low voice, when she, despite the situation, was almost falling asleep again, threatened to sag against him. Her lids lifted like under leaden weights, her pupils narrow and strangely glossy. Henry felt pity for her, that he had to stress her that way, but when they won´t go forward, she would slip from him completely. Dr. Mohadevan must have shot her the full load and he knew the effects of opium all too well. He supported her with his hip, lifting her head by the chin, so that she had to look at him.

"Okay, Vicki...go on please, before you´re completely falling asleep on me, in here. I really don´t wanna have to help along..." Henry gave her a half begging, have demanding look. He had such in-depth knowledge of female anatomy, that he perfectly knew how he might lift a blockade, even in. such cases. Vicki would be _really excited _of it, he told to himself.

She had to look at him, his view was adamantly. She weakly sighed, calling upon her memory, what he was expecting from her. With a deep groan, more by exhaustion than by anything else, she released herself finally. She felt terrible dizzy, his face in front of her was swimming and then darkness surged up around her...

Diffuse light was slowly penetrating to her. She felt a soft ground under her and the softness was lowering beside her. Vicki let herself drift and it took an eternity, until she opened her eyes. Rather vaguely she got it, that she had to be lying on a mattress and somebody had been sitting down beside her. There was a coll hand placed on her forehead and was moving moist and cold over her face.

"Wha...where...am I?"

"You´re lying in a bed, Vicki..."

"Was...bath."

"Yes. I´ve put you in my bed. You passed out on the toilet..." Fortunately _after_ she had emptied her bladder, he thought. "It´s all okay, Vicki. Don´t worry...sleep on, I´ll be staying with you. Is there any pain, Vicki?"

"Nope." she mumbled. An expression of relief was running over Henry´s face. At least she was without pain in the moment.

Dr. Mohadevan connected the glass bottle to the cannula, which would, over some hours, be leading the antibiotic into Vicki´s body.

"I hope that it´ll take effects...I won´t have time yet to make an antibiogram. She´s in a condition too bad to wait now. Vicki would have needed to get an antibiotic directly after her injury, before the infection could have developed so far..." the doctor threw in. Her soft, fawn eyes looked at Vicki in deep concern, who luckily didn´t notice much of it.

"I know, Dr.! Vicki didn´t tell me that she is working on a new case. And then such a dangerous one. It´s about large-scale drug dealing, not simply the trickery of a small size criminal, who gets on the gravy train in his company...Vicki has stumbled into something, what is more than only some numbers to large for a private eye. Believe me...I´m blaming myself for not driving over to her yesterday evening, when I couldn´t reach her on phone. We aren´t working together yet since such a long time and Vicki is also working on completely normal cases: adultery, defalcation, observations. Nothing specifically dangerous." Henry shook his head, his face was showing his desperation, his inner turmoil. Mohadevan could clearly see on him, how he was feeling. She laid her hand on his arm.

"That isn´t your fault, Henry! Nobody could guess, that this would be developing the way it did..."

"I don´t know, Dr.!"

When it would have been anything, that had to do with another vampire or a demon, Henry thought, then he might have been more trusting to his feelings. Anyway he mostly felt, when something like that was on. Like the series of murder in April, when Norman wanted to bring Astaroth up on earth. But he lacked of experience with simple detective work. In this Vicki was way ahead of him.

Vicki. Private detective. Ex-cop.

He thought of it for a moment, then he went on:

"Today, I´ve spoken to someone, who can help us to identify the attacker. He said that he´s working himself on that case, because he investigates for a customer in Los Angeles, a district attorney. It´s about large-scaled, international drug racketeering...As a forensic...did you have an increased number of drug death on the table over the last time?" He looked at her with a frown.

"Had this been the young man I´ve met before in the hallway?" Dr. Mohadevan asked.

"Yes. Tall, dark haired, slim..."

"Yes. I´m understanding! We have had a couple of cases of drug death. Seems to be a new stuff. Chemically it´s completely nontypical..."

"And the dead...their bodies are changing, they change color within short time...!?" Henry indicated. She nodded.

"Yes. These bodies almost look like...mummified. As if they have been lying around since months in certain climate, though death occurred only one or two days ago, as the state of the inner organs shows me. What alone isn´t a safe evidence. But I have documents. Documents which testify, that the person as a drug victim...overdose...had been brought to the hospital and died there too. So the exactly time of death is verified."

"That´s what the private detective has told me too. There have been equal cases in Los Angeles. Drug users, who had been delivered to hospital and then died there. He has a friend who´s working in a hospital´s pathology..."

"Do you know, who he is? When I might get reports from him...that might help me and us forward." Dr. Mohadevan interrupted him.

"He mentioned a name and has asked me, if there are resembling cases over here too. I´ll ask him for as soon as he´ll be back."

"Good! Does Detective Celluci know about it? Have you been talking about it with him? He´s investigating these cases of death together with the drug department..."

Henry groaned inwardly.

Once again!

Naturally it was Detective Celluci! It was bound to happen, with the luck which he had in the last time.

So slowly, Celluci was to become his personal nightmare!

"No! I´m knowing of this drug crap even since tonight! And Detective Celluci is currently staying in Vancouver." Henry answered her question. No need to tell her about his chilling talk with him.

"Does he know, that Vicki is hurt?"

"No!" Henry´s tone was short, a bit...impatiently, as she stated. She shot him a look from the side. Anything seemed to burden him. She had only met him once before, but Rajani had a fine feeling for other humans and their moods. What was astonishing, when one thought of it, that she mostly had to do with dead persons.

_Vicki, that fact that he´s dead, does not mean, that he has no feelings..._

Dr. Mohadevan was known for having a warped sense of humor. To some people she looked a bit weird, when she was speaking with the dead, who landed on her table. She thought if Henry was reacting only this way because he worried about Vicki, or if there was more behind it. He had pronounced the name Celluci in a tone, which didn´t even reveal sympathy. Well, she was knowing Mike and his grumpy temper pretty good.

The detective wasn´t always easy to be taken.

_To be continued _


	10. Chapter 8 Dark Intentions

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 8**_

_Intention _

_That is, what drives our actions. Well meant and all too often they turn out to be flawed. Until somebody turns light into darkness, feeding the demon inside..._

**Dark Intentions **

Mr. Fulton shoved the blood stained claw into the sleeve of the coat which he had worn, sousing it with gasoline from a small bottle and then he threw the burning spill on it. With a dull whoosh the bundle went up in flames and in the light of the dancing flames he watched with satisfaction, that the material of the cheap coat was charring until the flames grabbed for the claw.

The smoke was sharply stinking of burnt horn and he coughed, when the wind blew a whole cloud of the smoke right into his face.

In the middle of the night, out here nobody would be watching him. And if anybody would find the remains, that would only add a further nuance to the riddle from last spring. Minds full of fantasy would think that to be the remains of a demon, who had burnt up like by magic.

Fire destroyed every usable DNA traces.

In fact he had intended to slice the throat of this blonde P.I. Chick, exactly like these demon murders, but he hadn´t counted with such a well trained defense from her side. At least he had caught her belly with his weapon and what he could see in a few seconds, was that the blood was gushing out between her fingers in a sufficient amount.

The only thing that was gnawing on him, was the fact that he hadn´t heard or read anything in the media about a young woman found dead. But perhaps she was lying dead in her rooms. And then it would take time until her corpse was found.

Fulton thought it over, if she should sneak in there at nighttime to check it. On the other hand her rooms were in the bustling Huron Street and this would heighten the risk, that he´d be seen. With an angrily grunt he decided to wait. Because this P.I. hadn´t been showing up at work today, his chances weren´t that bad, that his attack was showing to be successfully.

When as well the coat as if the murder weapon were burnt up, of the last were only charred splinters left over, he shoved soil over the glow and then he went his way back to his car, which he had parked in some far distance.

Won´t be that good, when my tire traces are leading to the burning place..., he thought.

Inside his car he noticed, that he was strongly smelling of smoke. No wonder with this damned wind. So showering and giving his clothes to a laundry, but for sure not in Toronto.

The last murder had been way easier. Small order in Ottawa, where he had dispatched a middleman, who had tried to get the better of Mr. Huan.

When he was near to Mississauga, his cellphone was ringing. Fulton pulled his face when the caller-ID was showing Mr. Li Vu Huan. He steered the car over to the roadside, to answer the call.

"Mr. Fulton!" Mr. Huan´s voice sounded angrily.

"Ah, Mr. Huan! I was about to still call you tonight. I´m in the car in the moment." The first was a lie, the second point was true. Fulton tried to keep his voice jovial, business like, when he asked himself, what his boss wanted from him.

"I´m expecting a new delivery from Macao tomorrow, Fulton! I´m expecting from you to take care of it. And make use of the connection 92654..."

"It´s okay. Connection 92654. I´m bringing everything on its path. I..."

"And don´t it screw up like the latterly over the Bermudas! I won´t appreciate it, Fulton! Otherwise I might be thinking about, if I´ll have further use for you!" Meanwhile his tone had become ice cold and Fulton could imagine exactly, how the type was already refining to remove him from the business. The Mafia tended to concrete-cast their looser. They _got fitted a pair of concrete-shoes_. Huan was a Chinese. But in Toronto currently were a lot of buildings under construction and anywhere always a groundwork was excavated for a new skyscraper. And until somebody would be missing him... Nobody would break up a groundwork under a skyscraper to search for a probable corpse.

"And damn it, look once again to remove this crapped bookings from the system. Mr. Johnson has employed a new volunteer and I suspect it, that she shall sniff around . When this blonde bitch steps in our path, dispatch her! PCR! Pronto come rapido!* ( _*Italian for;_ immediately like fast, _in the_ _sense of;_ a bit suddenly) Have you gotten that?"

"Yes, Mr. Huan!" Fulton´s heart was beating faster. Where the heck did Huan know of that blonde? Was there any grass in the company?

Probably this snippy bucket carrier... assistant of the maintenance man, who constantly was scurrying through the offices with a canine devotional smile. Factotum. Chinese. The Igor of the Johnson Ltd. A disgusting subject. He asked himself who had smuggled him in. But Huan had everywhere his fingers in the pie.

"Ya know what´s hanging from the delivery! The whole Canadian market stands or falls with our new product and I don´t give a fuck who´s biting the dust when anything goes wrong!"

That was not to be misunderstood!

For sure he´d be the first one!

Mr. Huan hung up.

Dr. Mohadevan controlled the flow of the infusion, regulating the drop number up and laid her finger at Vicki´s throat. Her pulse had calmed down a bit again after Henry had put her in the bed again. The accentuation was lying on _bit_. Her body was not only fighting with her heightened pulse rate, caused by the temperature rise of the fever. But also the volume loss, the loss of large amounts of blood, which had happened to her, was pushing her pulse up. Anywhere her heart had to compensate the blood loss to provide her body with oxygen... Dr. Mohadevan was knowing exactly about the factors which were called shock signs. In almost all cases she was standing at the end of the chain, when once again she was getting a dead on her table, who finally had died from blood loss and thereby heart failure.

In doctor´s jargon this was called a _primary final target event._

A coolly logical transliteration for death.

And Vicki must have lost very much blood. If the infusions won´t be supporting her enough, they won´t get around a blood transfusion. Her blood group would be easily to verify, that wasn´t the problem.

Henry watched concerned, how the doctor was acting on Vicki. He could hear her heart beating, felt the heat that was exuded by her feverish body. The scent of her wound was filling the room and more than anybody else, he knew the signs of a massive blood loss. The modern medicine was able to help where in the past people had died from blood loss or he had only been able to save somebody by turning him.

Dr. Mohadevan noticed, how tensed Henry was standing behind her, keeping himself from constantly feeling for Vicki´s pulse or temperature with some effort. He was impatiently chewing on his lower lip waiting for Dr. Mohadevan to turn to him, talking to him. His fingers were clasped around the small silver cross, which was hanging from a leather cord around his neck. Finally she turned around to him. The unspoken question was written in his face.

"I´m looking for how the Ringer works...if it is stabilizing her circulation. Otherwise I´ll get her blood. We have to fill up her system as fast as possible, because her heart is already very stressed by the fever, Henry." Probably his extraordinary hearing was able to notice more as she´d have been able to with simple means in here.

"Vicki has lost lots of blood, Dr.! When we consider the size and depth of her wound, I´m honestly wondering how she has made it to me all alone. I couldn´t reach her yesterday evening and tonight, she surprisingly showed up here..."

His hand squeezed the cloth in the water bowl and he dabbed her face and her forehead. Her skin seemed to be glowing, he breath was coming in a fast staccato. Her belly wall lifted and sank with her hard going breath and despite the morphine, she seemed to twitch on a certain point with every intake of breath...so as if her wounded body would shrink back from the movement.

He newly moistened the washcloth, his fingers carefully lifted the blanket, pulling it back down to her thighs and his hand moved deeper, dabbing her chest and her belly around the bandage. His view went to the soft fleece of hair on her lower belly. Her legs were slim and well-formed. Muscular without looking artificially trained, a result of her sports training. Vicki jogged and in her rooms was a sand bag hanging from the ceiling, which she used for boxing and leg training. Carefully his hand went deeper to her calves. Here her skin was glowing hot too.

"Do you have clothes available, Henry?"

"Yes..."

"Good! Make calf wrappings. Cold moist clothes wrapped around her calves. Let them on some twenty minutes, then you can moisten them newly. How far it´ll lower her fever I can´t say, but it would do her any good at least, Henry..." Dr. Mohadevan suggested.

Henry nodded.

"I know the procedure. I´ve gotten wrappings as a kid when I´d fever. That´s comfortable, because it cools at least..." The Duke of Norfolk, where he mainly had been growing up, had made cold wrappings on him nights long, when he´d been lying in bed with high risen fever. In the winter of 1527. Dark winter days and long nights, interwoven by the fever fog of the flu.

Norfolk had treated him like his own son, had educated him together with his own son, who treated Henry like a brother. His physical father, Henry VIII, had been too much involved in politics and processes and intrigues at court, as that he would have found time to care for him. His mother Elisabeth Blount lived in a noble residence far off the palace.

Henry VIII used to treat his mistresses with generosity, but kept her on distance to the court, when his love affairs hadn´t been without consequences.

His father´s passion for beautiful women: a never ending story. As well at court as outside too.

Sometimes Henry had, completely independent from his vampire nature, the feeling that he had inherit the susceptibility of his father for the seduction skills of beautiful women. Constantly women had been courting for his father´s favor, had been skillfully placed in front of the king´s nose by their parents, like, for example the Boleyn sisters. His father had let him educate in the art of love making at age twelve by one of his mistresses and since the age of fifteen he practically was constantly surrounded by the countless ladies at court, who hoped for much advantages by a relation to the king´s royal son.

It hadn´t been so easy to resist it.

Henry disappeared to the bathroom, was back after a few moments with a bath towel and moist clothes. Mohadevan took the wrappings and Henry carefully lifted Vicki´s lower legs, spreading the towel on the sheet.

Vicki groaned extended. Normally she must not have any pain, Henry thought. The morphine dosage should be sufficiently. Her eyes were opening and she tried to look at Henry. Her lips moved and even he could barely understand, what she was mumbling.

"It´s all good, Vicki...I´m making wrappings around your legs. That may cool a bit. Don´t have fear...stay simply lying completely relaxed..." he tried to calm her down, when she totally drowsy tried to pull her ankle from his hand. She mumbled anything, her calf tensed, but Henry hold her fixed with gentle force. Not that easy to find the right amount of strength to overcome her resistance without causing her pain. As a vampire it would be an easy thing to use his strength, but he had to take care. In relation to him, mortals were rather breakable.

He fixed her leg with one hand, bent over her and with the other hand he stroked her hot temple, his view fixed on her eyes. She groaned low, her eyes were murky glistening by the fever glow.

"Easy, Vicki...stay calm!" he smiled at her and felt when she slowly relaxed: "All good, Vicki...sssh."

Then he nodded to the doctor, lifting up Vicki´s calf and she moved the cloth over the skin, heard Vicki sigh sharply.

"I know...it´s cold, but that will be good for you..." she said in a low voice, when she wrapped the cloth around the calf. Then she repeated the procedure at the other leg. Halfway turned to Henry, she meant: "Do it slowly. First dab the leg, then wrap it around...Then the sudden coldness is better bearable..." she explained to him. Henry nodded and he bent so deeply over Vicki, that her hot breath was stroking over his face.

"Relax, Vic..." he softly whispered, while his fingers stroked over her face.

"Le...let...me not...alone. Please Hen...ry..." she pleaded.

"No, I´m staying with you...don´t be afraid. You´re in safety in here." he assured her. He would be watching over her until sunrise. Until Coreen would replace him.

Sunrise! When the sun would be rising, he would fall asleep and she would be all alone, it shot through her mind.

"Sun...you..." she croaked.

"Coreen will stay with you at daytime. She´ll come in the morning, no fear. We won´t let you alone yet, Vicki!" His fingers caressed her cheeks and he smiled at her. The expression of fear yielded from her eyes and her head rolled against his cool hand. Mohadevan nodded to him and he sat down to Vicki on the bed´s edge, beginning to dab her face with the moist cool washcloth. Slowly Vicki was relaxing, her lids closed and she gave herself over to the comfortable coolness. Henry heard by her changing heartbeat that she was gliding down into sleep. Finally! He wondered how much resistance she brought up against the morphine, how much she fought it to give in to her exhausted and halfway bled out body. Henry asked inwardly how she had made it through the day.

She has to be terribly afraid, that she so desperately fought for consciousness and staying awake. Or was it already the high risen fever that switched off her reasonable mind? He knew how much a body in fever didn´t react normally anymore.

Additionally her fear of the guy who had hurt her.

Back then in the dungeons of the Spanish inquisition, when he had been tortured and halfway bled out, he couldn´t sleep at daytime. Blood loss, pain, his wounds weren´t healing anymore and the fever when his body fought the infection in the wounds. He had been completely drowsy by the fever, when Maria had come to him. Maria, who felt pity for him.

God, when this lunatic would have caught her! His guard, who helps a captive, a creature of hell, offspring of the devil, how Mendoza had called him.

Luckily this was past. Over and out!

In one point Henry was wrong...

He put the cloth into the bowl and grabbed for the cross, that he was wearing around his neck.

Dr. Mohadevan watched when Henry closed his hand around the small silver cross with the ruby in its center. His lips moved when he started to pray in a very low voice. Words in Latin were flowing from his lips. An old prayer with the request for succor for Vicki and for her healing. The forensic understood the words and their meaning, because she naturally was educated in Latin. But the prayers were unknown to her, as she was a Hindi. But it gave prayers for healing in her religion too.

Henry must be deeply rooted in his beliefs, she thought when she watched him, while she checked Vicki´s pulse, which was still very fast though, but no more so irregular as in the beginning. The infusion and the sleep under morphine made her heart working a bit calmer. Hopefully the antibiotic would take effect.

Here in Henry´s condo she won´t have the possibilities like in a hospital; cardiac monitor, artificial ventilation etc. Should Vicki´s condition become worse, then she would have no other choice than to deliver Vicki to a hospital. Irrespective if she or Henry would agree with it or not. The doctor went over to her large bag, which was standing beside the bed, checking for its content. Bandage materials, infusions, surgery instruments, diverse ampules with meds plus catheters and urine bags. No such nice prospect to connect Vicki to a whole bundle of tubes.

**Coreen´s apartment**

When Coreen had finished the call with Mike, she felt very uncomfortable. Had she done anything wrong today, that she had only thrown a short view into Vicki´s bedroom in the evening, in the assumption that she was sleeping deep and firmly?

Mike had sounded so concerned and pissy. For sure, he seemed not to be even a friend of Henry, was probably a bit jealous cuz of Vicki. Though Vicki was more than reluctant when it came to men,Coreen had felt the tension, that was lying in the air when Henry was together with her. He was such a charming man and even Vicki seemed unable to resist her attraction for him, so hard she even tried not to let on anything.

Coreen admired Vicki´s resistance, watching it and was often thinking, that she wouldn´´t hesitate a moment when Henry would have been courting her. Anyway she didn´t understand Vicki. When she had looked into the bedroom in the evening, Vicki had been lying in the bed with her eyes closed and there had been nothing uncommon. She put on her coat, determined to drive over to Henry to look, what was going on there. When Vicki was with Henry, there were in and of itself no reasons to worry about anything. In the company of a vampire one couldn´t been any safer, especially when he was a friend. A mere mortal won´t be that crazy to pick a quarrel with him seriously, but for Mike perhaps.

Just when she had the key bundle in her hand, her cellphone was ringing again.

Once again Detective Celluci? What does he even want?

"So fast I can´t be back, Detective..." she mumbled, before she answered the call.

It was Henry.

"Oh, good evening, Henry! I was just on my way to come over to you...Is Vicki with you?"

"Good evening, Coreen! Yes, she´s here with me! Stay please at your home, until I´ll let you pick up! Don´t, in no case, go out, the less to Vicki´s office or home! Did you understand me?"

"What? Why? What´s up, Henry? And what, for heaven´s sake, is with Vicki? Did anything happen?" she blurted out excitedly.

Had been Norman reappearing? Astaroth?

"Slowly, Coreen! Alas: Vicki is here with me. There have been difficulties with her new case..." he breathed deeply.

"What kinda difficulties?" she felt how her heartbeat was speeding up.

"Yesterday Vicki had been on her way to a client and on it...she got stabbed down by a suspect in the street!"

"Oh my God!" Coreen had the feeling, that the ground would give in under her feet. "She...she is..." her voice was trembling and she didn´t dare to speak on.

"No! She´s alive, Coreen! But she is...seriously hurt. Dr. Mohadevan is here. She has treated her wound and right now she gets infusions for liquid substitution and with an antibiotic..."

"How is she...?"

"Not good! To tell honestly: rather miserable. She has lost lots of blood and has a high risen fever."

"I´m immediately coming to you, Henry!"

"No! Stop!" His voice was dark. Then he sounded...normally again. "Stay at home, Coreen! You´ll be picked up. By a private detective! Mick St. John. He´ll pick you up. He´ll identify himself. Dark, curly hair, young, brown eyes, some 6´ 0 3/4". He´s a P.I. From Los Angeles!"

"Okay, so I´ll wait for him! When does he come?"

"Before sunrise. So you´ll be over here, before I will have...to sleep." Henry explained. "And there´s something else, Coreen!" he added.

"Yup!?"

"St. John is a vampire!"

Coreen let almost drop the cellphone.

"Vampire? But I thought, you..." Henry heard her stammering. "God, I thought, you...you can´t together with another vampire..." He had told her once, that he would...in no case...tolerate another vampire in Toronto. Under no circumstances.

"I don´t _share_ the territory with him. He´s investigating in a case which has led him from Los Angeles to Toronto. International drug racketeering! And it´s the very same case on which Vicki got set on! We´ve found that out just tonight, when I begged him to come to me..."

"_You_ have begged him in, Henry?"

"Yes! Sometimes even I have to make certain concessions, stepping aside my rules. I would be searching for the attacker on my own, but I can´t leave Vicki alone now, as far as it´s possible for me. That means that I need somebody with experience in investigations. I´m a vampire, no private eye, Coreen...!"

"But you´ve banished Astaroth back to hell too, Henry!"

"That´s something else! I know about it, just to say so. But here we´ve to do with freaking normal criminals of the worst kind. They would barely react to some exorcism in Latin! Rather on fire weapons and cuffs!"

"Have you been speaking about it with Mike? Eventually he´s a cop, a detective. And he´s working in the homicide, Henry! Drug dealer are ice cold killers! When someone steps in their path, they dispatch him. And all these peeps who´re dying from the drugs..."

She heard Henry groaning, not far from a growl by the rumble in his throat. What...?

"Yes! I _have_ talked to him. But not about that! First...he isn´t in Toronto yet. Second...Detective Celluci isn´t my first choice when it comes to cases on which Vicki is working!"

Coreen asked herself, what obviously was going on there. Also in her talk with Mike she had heard, that there was no love lost between them. Sure, Mike was one of the rather mistrusting kind. Work-related disease. But that he got such loose on Henry...Vicki naturally had told her what had happened in front of the Cobb-Institute. But Mike seemed have to swallow hard on the fact, that Henry is a vampire. And that such beings were even existing. Mike was just a normal human!

"Okay!? But...I mean, it...there are still other Detectives in the TMP homicide!" When Henry would turn to somebody else probably...?

"Listen...!" Henry sighed. Coreen only meant the best. "I can´t and I´m not willing to simply step in the precinct and ask for police protection for Vicki or one of you! I don´t know these Detectives Lam and Graham! I need a person of my trust! Not just anybody."

"Henry, you can´t get mixed up with a whole drug mafia all alone!" Coreen pressed on him.

"I know, Coreen! But now Vicki goes first thing...And I´ll not give a fuck about _how far_ I will have to go!" Coreen heard the rage from his voice. She knew that Henry always kept himself under control, but that was sounding yet very threatening. Hopefully he won´t do anything, that he has to regret later on! Or, where he gets himself too much in danger. Even a vampire is not invulnerable, she thought with concern, but didn´t speak it out now.

"Please, Henry! Be careful!"

"That I am already, Coreen! That´s also the reason why I want you to get here. At my home. I act on the assumption, that these criminals don´t know the connection between me and Vicki...So you´ll be much safer in here, than at your home or at Vicki´s."

"Uh, cuz of this I shall not go back to her office, I guess..."

"Exactly! And don´t leave home until St. John picks you up!"

"Hm, shall I...shall we bring anything in too...I don´t know, if you..."

"Get yourself ready for a couple of days while you can´t get home, Coreen...About the medical stuff...that´s what Dr. Mohadevan cares about..." his voice became softer. "But it´s very kind, that you´re asking for it. Thank you very much, Coreen."

His words went down like balm after the shock.

When Henry was relaxed, he had a voice like velvet and silk. His eyes...she didn´t want to think about it even yet. Henry- vampire to melt away!

"Okay, Henry...then we´ll see later..."

"Yes. Till later, Coreen." Henry hung up.

Coreen grabbed for her head, let sink herself on the next best chair. She needed a while until her beating heart calmed down. That what she didn´t count with. She was aware that Vicki sometimes had difficult cases, but luckily anything like that hadn´t happened until now. But she had always feared for it. Why at least hadn´t she told Henry about the case?

_Before_ she got started to investigate.

Heaven, sometimes Vicki is so stubborn! That she kept away from Mike with it: okay. Eventually she wasn´t a cop anymore. But Henry...?

Coreen needed a few moments to get her thoughts in a row, then she went to her bedroom and packed everything of need in her sports bag. A couple of days had Henry said. But she would be in safety at his home. And she would be at Vicki´s side, no matter how things would be developing.

She had survived Astaroth!

She and Vicki!

So they would survive that too! Of this she was convinced.

**Downtown Toronto**

Mick was waiting in his hotel for Logan´s feedback via email.

He reviewed his encounter with this Henry Fitzroy once again. This vampire was already pretty heavy. It wasn´t missing much and this vampire would have gone loose on him right away.

Territorial instincts sometimes could get out of hand to be a serious problem. Augustus had already warned him that Fitzroy was hard to take. But then he had it only considered to be a question of staying in Toronto, not also of working for him yet. Though it had to do with the cross-linking of his case. Because of that, Josh Lindsey had sent him to Canada. He had been acting on the assumption, that he´d be making his investigations here, without coming in direct contact with Fitzroy, especially as he wasn´t hunting to feed...and then he would return to L.A. where Josh would initiate everything else.

So a totally normal case!

Eventually he was working as a private investigator since so long, that he had often investigated outside of Los Angeles. However still not in the territory of another vampire, who wasn´t tolerating another of his kind beside him. Fitzroy must be up to his neck in it, when he, of all things, called him in, Mick said to himself.

"Hi, Josh!"

"Mick?"

"Yeap, it´s me, Josh. I´ve found out here, in Toronto, that there´s a large-scaled drug deal on. The´re getting the stuff from Macao. Obviously the same synthesized crap, from which already so many had died in L.A. Griffen is on the bank details and I´m waiting for his answer."

"Data? Can you mail them me?"

"I´ll say Griffen! He shall make it, that safer than from here. I don´t wanna make any unnecessary data transfers. The reason is, that I´ve encountered here somebody, who works together with a private detective, who has been set on the same case. Though one of the suspects has committed an assault on her yesterday evening, which she fortunately survived. Otherwise I won´t have the information, which we have yet."

"Who is your connection, Mick?"

"Mr. Fitzroy. Actually he´s an artist, releasing graphic novels. He´s a friend of her and she´s hiding at his home, what he thinks to be relatively safe."

"That means, your informant is not lying in a hospital?" Josh asked when he tried to put the current information together.

"No! She´s hurt. Rather severely. But she´s alive. Still...! Mr. Fitzroy has called me today, because he needs my help."

"How did he get to your address, Mick?"

"We have a mutual friend, who ordered the hotel for me too...an old friend of Josef." No need to lead Josh deeper into the details of the vampire connection. Indeed Josh was a reasonable guy, who won´t immediately flip out, but that won´t add to the facts yet.

"Can we reach this private detective? She might be of use for us as a witness. Josh considered. He needed more evidences urgently. On a vague suspicion, he won´t get a request for legal and administrative cooperation pressed through. Least of all outside the USA.

"Call it; I know where she is. But in the moment it´s all about protecting her, you´re understanding it, Josh?!"

"Of course! Only...we urgently need her testimony. Above all, when...as you say, her state...isn´t steady...!" Josh warned him. When the witness would die, before she could give her testimony, then they would be hardly further on than before.

"Ms. Nelson, Vicki Nelson, that´s her name, isn´t currently in the condition to give a testimony. When I left, a doctor came in. She a forensic too. Perhaps I can talk with her about the cases of death. Mr. Fitzroy has mentioned, that she must know about, when there are cases of death by this Hell´s Dust in Toronto too...She might enable us access to the reports of the forensic examinations, just in case of..."

"Okay. Please try to collect as much evidences as possible.

"That for I´m here..."

"And ask Ms. Nelson as soon as it´s possible. We´re dependent here of every so small detail. When we can´t nail _Il_ _Diavolo_ this time, then our beautiful city will soon be turning into a big morgue."

There were always drug crimes, but that what was flooding the market in the moment, was since a very long time the worst, they had been living to see. The users died like flies. It always happened that a user dropped an overdose of a drug, but this death rate was absolutely abnormal, not to call it deviant. Not to mention the state of the corpses.

Above all: what was the sense of it all?

When the users died too fast, the market died out! Substance related problems? Too small range of effect, which the producer didn´t get under control? Or was there any other reason, one could only speculate of?

What, when _Il Diavolo_ was about to...?

He wasn´t called _Il Diavolo_ for nothing. _The Devil._

The drug boss originated from Mexico, with Hispano-Native roots. His career had him led from a guttersnipe over a gang leader up to being the boss of one of the largest Mexican American drug syndicates. He had asserted himself in the scene with ruthless brutality and within shortest time he had established a worldwide net including Asia.

By the fact that there were always smart criminal defense lawyers, he often had...way too often for Josh´s taste...slipped through the law´s mesh. But when everything would run well this time, then said mesh would be constricting around his neck like a rope. And with him a considerable number of his subordinates would disappear in jail for a very long time.

"This once we will have to get him, Mick. This devil in human shape. That stuff what he´s spreading around...one might mean, he has gotten that in his hands by Satan personally!" Josh sounded almost desperately.

"That´s what Mr. Fitzroy said too, Josh!" Mick agreed with him.

"What has he said?" Josh asked with a doubtful voice.

"That with...by the devil personally!"

Josh twitched; "Uh, that I´ve just only said so..."

Mick´s voice became lower, when he went on. "Listen, Josh...about devil and something equal! I´ve been at Mr. Fitzroy´s home. We had sat down in a room for a conversation, that obviously serves as a library and when he shortly left for a phone call, I gave his collection a closer look! You...won´t believe it, what all kinda books he has standing on the shelves!"

"Uhm, yes...when he´s an artist and draws comics..." These peeps always needed lots of background information and sources, Josh thought.

"I´m not talking about Batman and Co here. He has books in mass, which are normally only preferred by people in the goth and esoteric scene. The...Necronomicon, Book Of Blood...a, uhm, grimoire and so on and so on. A whole closet full of them.

"Probably he takes them as inspiration for his novels, Mick. Or he´s just collecting curiosities..."

"This I don´t believe. I have the vague feeling that he really knows about that kinda stuff. About such paranormal stuff."

"And what makes your assumptions flying?" Josh found it a bit strange now.

"I haven´t been lazy, while I´m waiting for Griffen´s answer...I´ve candled the background of this private detective Victoria Nelson. She´s an ex-cop, works now as a P.I. And in her advertisement she wrote: No case too difficult, no case too uncommon. Occultism is our specialty...! That scarcely let grow any doubts on the fact, that Mr. Fitzroy is at least something like her consultant. He has confessed himself, that he works together with her since some time...And then he dropped a hint about already having experienced things, of which I wouldn´t have any imagination..."

"Hm, try to lit up him a bit more, Mick. His background, his career and so on. But maybe he´s only a bit dotty, like a lot of artists. Maybe the text in the advertisement is from him, a commercial gimmick to say. There are countless graphic authors and one has to outstand among them, to be successful in the eyes of the readers."

The imagination that he would have to work with a witness, who was not only having such interests but was enforcing them, didn´t even calm down Josh now. In the worst of all cases, the opposite lawyers would shredder such a witness as certifiable insane. Figments of one´s imagination were the worst of all evidences. What he needed were cast iron proof evidences and testimonies, which were cemented bombproof in reality.

"You´ll please be calling me again, as soon as you´re having something, Mick..." Josh begged.

"Yes, as soon as I´ll know more. Nice evening, Josh!"

"Same to you! And much success! In the moment you´re our single hope, when it comes to Canada."

"There´s still another one..."

"Oops, where did I already hear this before?"

"Star Wars. Obi Wan Kenobi about Leia..." Mick quoted, to refresh Josh´s memory.

"Ha, ha! What have you already seen at all, Mick?"

"Very much, Josh!"

How much, that he didn´t need to tell him. And first of all...

...why!

Mick hung up with a satisfied smile. Sometimes it was fun for him to play around a bit with his immortality, without the other one being able to guess, what he, Mick, was...

Though Josh was a bit of a rival when it came to Beth, because he was her friend and her lover, but Mick felt at the same time responsible for Beth, like a protector, and he felt attracted to her too. What wasn´t making things easier for Beth, because she was emotionally standing between two men. And he was fighting with his feelings too.

On one side, he was loving Beth, on the other hand he didn´t want to pull her into his world. What, if he would have wanted it, would have been easy.

A bite. Drinking her blood. And then to give her his blood. Like Coraline had done it.

_To be continued _


	11. Chapter 9 Waiting Through The Night

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 9**_

_Morpheus- the God of dreams..._

_He can turn into every shape he wishes. He is also described to appear in the shape of bats. In his _Metamorphosis_, Ovid names Morpheus and his brothers Phobetor and Phantasos as Oneiroi, what means Dream Demons. Morpheus can claim all human like shapes, while Phobetor fakes animals and Phantasos shows up as forces of nature. These three dream demons are the most powerful of the Oneiroi and Morpheus is the leader. They are mainly sending their dreams to the antique kings and sovereigns, in difference to their brothers, the other dream demons. They are delivering messages from the Gods. Morpheus and the Oneiroi are either the son´s of Hypnos, or they are his brothers, but there by the Sons of the Night, Nyx. His bed is made of ivory and placed in a dark cave. Further on, the cave of his father is mentioned as his place of residence, or instead of it, the part of the underworld that is called Erebos. Additionally, in some legends he´s honored as the God of dying by dozing off. His symbol is the capsule of the opium poppy, from which opium is made._

**Waiting through the night.**

Henry finished his phone call with Coreen. He felt queasy, when something like this was possible in a vampire, though when he wasn´t hungry. For the first time since he had started to work with Vicki and Coreen, he had to cope with something where he simply couldn´t take the initiative all alone to solve the problem.

First of all, he hadn´t to cope with a single or two opponents, but he was confronted by an unknown number of them. Organized crime that was acting internationally, kept whole police departments running. The only thing he could do in the moment, was to protect Vicki and his friends by getting them over here. Tony was already here and Coreen would come shortly before dawn. And he needed her too as care for Vicki and help for her at daytime. He might not do more in the moment.

Henry went to his guest room, opened the door and looked into the room, whose windows were hermetically sealed. Normally this room served as an over-day stay for vampires on a removal trip, what luckily happened only rarely. Now he had given it to Tony.

The young man had immediately made himself comfortable on the large bed and now he lifted his head when Henry looked in.

"I thought that you´re sleeping, Tony..."  
>"Would like to. Is all okay in here, really, Henry, but anyway I can´t fall asleep! Can´t gonna get all that crap outta my head..."<p>

"I´m completely understanding it, Tony. But you need to sleep urgently. Right now, when your body is that kinda done..." Henry threw in.

"Wanna believe it, but ain´t going..." Tony´s face showed a depressed expression. In his very own way, Henry was always caring. Vampire-responsibility! But since he had laid down, he was tossing around, unable to find some sleep. And that wasn´t cause of the bed, which was really very comfortable.

Henry shook his head.

"I can help you, Tony! Just you´ll let me..." _What was way easier with Tony than with Vicki._

Tony looked at him, nodded in agreement. Probably it would help, he told to himself. After the nod it took only seconds and Henry went vamped-out. Pupils black and wide, fangs dropped.

His voice got that dark, deep resonance, with which he could compel his target persons. Tony knew it and he didn´t feel any fear.

Not with Henry.

Christina, of whom Henry had told him about, that would look quite different. This vampire woman was rather dangerous.

"Look at me, Tony!" Commanding voice. Tony obeyed, concentrating on the voice, which had switched to a compelling timbre.

"You´re totally relaxed, Tony...You´re very tired and you´ll fall asleep now, to wake up recovered then!"

Tony´s view became a bit glazed-over. A yawning forced his mouth open and he let himself sink back. A leaden tiredness got hold of him and it only a few moments and he was fallen asleep. Henry´s eyes got back to the normal cerulean and he smiled, when his fangs retracted. Then he covered Tony with the blankets and left the room as silently as he had come in.

In his bedroom, Dr. Mohadevan had sat down onto the Victorian sofa, her view was directed to her patient. The infusions were running and now they had to wait, if the antibiotic would work. Naturally that would take a good while. Other, than with the morphine dosage, which worked immediately.

Finally Vicki had closed her eyes. Either she had given in to the urges of her body, or the morphine was nailing her down or her weakened circulation pulled the emergency brake now and then. Henry gently sank on the bed´s edge, listening to her breath, to her heartbeat. All of her signalized sleep. Very carefully he dabbed her forehead and her cheeks with a moist and cool cloth, finally letting it placed on her forehead. Vicki didn´t defend him off.

Good!

_Norman´s grinning grimace showed up above her and the light in the room was greenish-gray. Kill her finally, so that I can enter this world! Astaroth´s voice was thundering over the turmoil. His hand was clasped around Sarah´s wrist and her crying was mixing into the roar and his unearthly voice. A giant vortex was whirling in the middle of the room, a Maelstrom of whirling hell fumes. Voices, tortured screams and fading noises were coming out of the whirling blackness. Astaroth´s grimace pulled to a smirking laughter and his voice let the whirling mass tremble. He extended one arm towards Mike, who started to slide towards him. There were gurgling sounds coming from his throat. No! Mike! No! Not him...! _

_Her arms were flailing wildly. Swimming. To him. To hold Mike. Grabbing him. Have to grab him! Go to hell, Satan! Her voice...it was strangely hollow. Screaming, screaming. Then the arm of the hell´s prince whirled around and his bright claw extended, when he threw his hood back. Drawing aside! His arm hit her and her belly was bursting._

_Blood. All blood..._

_Blood poured from her in one gush after another. A red sea started to crawl over the ground and she wanted to scream. Screaming. Fire. A hellacious glow was burning through her body, biting its way upwards, swelling out of her mouth like glowing lava, when her body turned slowly into a glowing something. Wavering embers like from charcoal were meandering over her torso, her arms and her legs were dissolving._

_Mine! Mine! Mine! Astaroth screamed and he bent over her with a hellish laughter. His mouth turned into a teeth framed pit and then he began to gulp her down. Sucking her up like smoke, that was disappearing into a chimney._

_There was whirling blackness around her. Black. Without light. Abysmal. A fathomless abyss..._

Henry heard when her heartbeat was speeding up in his ears. Vicki´s breath was coming in erratic and heavy bursts and before he could even react, Vicki buckled with a tortured scream. So torturous, that Henry twitched and was feeling that his own heart was racing. As quick as a flash, he grabbed her, supporting Vicki and gently pressing her down on the pillow at the same time. He looked into her eyes which were widened. Inarticulate sounds were coming out of her mouth.

"Easy! Calm down, Vicki! It´s me! Henry!" He bent closely over her. Her breath was hot and gasping, she stared at him and her pupils were narrow from the morphine. Vicki seemed to be caught in a terrifying dream, unable to realize where she was and who was with her.

"Vicki! Wake up...! VICKI!"

This time his voice was louder. He couldn´t shake her by the shoulders, to avoid hurting her. His hands were caressing her temples, her cheeks. His voice had lowered down to a soothing murmur and then she gave a groan. Her body was shaking and the uncoordinated kicking and twitching subsided, when the shaking turned into a trembling. She mumbled anything, her voice was raspy and hoarse. Tears were oozing from the corners of her eyes and she tried to focus the face above her.

"It´s good, Vicki...all good! You´re in safety...nobody will harm you...Don´t be afraid, please, Vicki!"

With a gasping, she tried to sit up, as if she was searching for protection beside him. Henry threw a look to the side, where Mohadevan had stepped behind him. The doctor gave an agreeing nod.

Henry formed a silent okay with his lips, then he carefully shoved his arm under her naked shoulders, lifting her upper body up a bit, his other hand was lying above the bandage. He bent over her so far that he could support her by the shoulders, without lifting her up too much.

Vicki´s head sagged against his shoulder and she trembled helplessly. Her view became a bit clearer and she seemed to realize a little bit at least.

"He...help...me, Henry! Plea...se..." she hawed. Her hand was crawling up, her fingers which were moist from sweat were clasping around Henry´s wrist with the strength of fear.

"Do you have any pain, Vicki...? Pain...?!" he spoke especially slowly, so the words had time to work their way into her fever fogged brain. After half an eternity she answered.

"Nope..." More a barely audible mumble than anything else. "Mike...Must...Mike. Must. Rescue. Him..."

"Mike? What´s about Mike, Vicki?"

"Da...danger...Res...cue him..."

"Vicki! Mike is alright. He´s in Vancouver...He´s all okay! No danger!"

Detective Celluci.

Already again!

"Have you dreamed of Mike, Vicki?"

"Dream...? Dreaming..." she mumbled, then her voice became a bit more high pitched, as far as she even got the strength for it. "Sarah! He has...Sarah!" She looked at him, begging.

"WHO has Sarah, Vicki? Sarah, the little girl...Do you mean HER?"

"Y...yes..." her lip trembled: "Astaroth."

"What?! You mean...Astaroth has Sarah? Do you mean that, Vicki?"

Did she only have a terrible fever dream? Or worse...

...a vision?

Vicki had no paranormal skills. But Henry couldn´t tell yet, how far the marks on her wrists had woken up hidden skills in her or if they enabled her of something special.

"Yes..." she gasped and new dreams were running down her hot cheeks.

"Victoria! You´ve dreamed. Sarah is in safety...You´re in a high risen fever, Vicki and your brain is playing bad tricks on you...It´s all okay, Vic...believe me...!"

"Mike...and...Sarah...in...safe...ty?" she gasped.

"Yes, Vicki!" He stroked over her forehead, dabbing the tears from her cheeks with one finger. His voice was soft, confidently, his view full of love.

"Thank...God!" Vicki croaked, obviously being convinced by his words. She relaxed a bit and her view, which had been helplessly wandering around, now stayed fixed on his cerulean eyes.

Blue, so deep like the summer sky. Blue ponds. Deep ocean. Under the calm surface, there was drifting what was Henry. What made him up. Her saving angel in shining armor. Vampire. Archangel with the sword. Vicki got lost in the fathomless blue depths. It sucked her up like the blackness of his pupils and vaguely she reminded something from before, when she had been lying in the kitchen. Anything had been there.

Indefinite feeling of getting lost in him. Fear first, then a great calmness when his eyes seemed to look down to her deepest soul. His hands had been so cool at her and when she had finally only paid attention to voice and his eyes, the damn pain had lessened.

Heaven, she was so strong. Iron will.

And nonetheless.

Wonderful feeling of...security. For the first time since long, she felt safe in the presence of a man. Something that she had only felt with Mike.

Vicki felt his cool hand at her cheek, sighed and leaned against it, her bare shoulders were at his chest.

_Yes, hold me, Henry. Hold me tight. Don´t go away.._.

"Pl...please, stay...here...Don´t let me..." she whispered beseechingly.

"I´m with you, Vicki! I don´t let you alone, don´t worry...try to sleep again. I can also help you with it, when you wish...or when you´ll let me..." he offered to her, being well aware how much Vicki denied it to give herself to him. But her lids fell closed always again, her senses more than only fogged by the large amount of morphine, with which the forensic had provided her.

"No...I...i..." the rest trailed away in an even for him inscrutable mumble and her lids closed again.

Her yet calmer breath told him that she was slipping into sleep again. Not necessary to make use of his _convincing skills. _Henry stayed in his position for a while, with Vicki in his arms. She was lying so that her belly was relieved and the morphine soothed her pain. Should she wake up again, she would be feeling safe.

"What had been going on with Vicki, Henry...? Does she have bad dreams?" the doctor asked.

"Yes!" Henry nodded. "She must have had terrible nightmare. I guess, it´s caused by the fever and at all, over the last time she has experienced a lot, that don´t go past even her without traces. To get mixed up with the forces of hell, that´s something what immensely burdens even the strongest humans..."

Henry carefully turned Vicki´s wrist upwards; "Look at it, Dr.!"

Mohadevan inspected the mark with knitted brows.

"Is this...a tattoo? Or...?"

"Norman Bridewell has caused her these...marks. That´s like tattooed, but no normal ink, as one usually uses it. I don´t know exactly what this stuff is, but it can´t be...simply removed...!"

"It looks like a satanic symbol." Dr. Mohadevan sounded a bit skeptically. "I have to confess, that I myself am not an expert in this..." she confessed.

Henry nodded and felt the rage rising in him again. With much effort he kept his voice under control, when he went on; "He has signed Vicki on both wrists with the pentagram seal of the hell demon Astaroth. They are marking Vicki as kinda...property! And that´s the worst what one can do to somebody!" His eyes darkened remarkable.

_Anyway fascinating_!

Mohadevan watched how his eyes turned to the darkest cobalt, when his pupils widened and the iris was fusing together to a barely visible ring. Atropine was widening the pupils or some other pharmaceuticals, or when it was extremely dark.

But this here had neither do do with the light nor with any substances. I´m asking myself how he manages this and to this extreme extend, she thought. The white of the sclera almost completely disappears. She hadn´t still seen such a thing in any human.

If he´s even a human at all!

But she said nothing to it, nodded only in agreement: "I´ve noticed that already before and honestly, I´ve been wondering too, where from she got that. I can´t imagine myself that Vicki is...the type for any...no matter which...tattoos. She´s at least..." Mohadevan slightly smiled. "...sometimes a bit...well...a tomboy...But that won´t be her thing. Vicki didn´t tell me how she got to them...and she mostly wears long sleeves or jewelry over them.."

"How long do you already know Vicki?" Henry asked, whose eyes had brightened again.

"Los of years already. Some ten or more. She has started in the TMP in the patrol duty and then she climbed the job ladder to the homicide. I myself am already working in the TMP since the beginning of my coroner career. And you can believe me, Henry: I´ve experienced a lot already. Very much. More than what shows commonly up in the official reports. There´s a lot what you naturally can´t write in a protocol, unless you can put up with being thought to be one brick short of a full load. Eventually we´re scientists!"

Dr. Mohadevan smiled.

"But as a scientist I´m open minded to everything!"

Henry looked at her in a way that showed, that he understood.

At last in the laboratory and of all, tonight here, the coroner had seen more of him than ever before. Her answer was showing, that she was well aware, that there was something special about Mr. Fitzroy. At least he is more than unusual, but she classified that into the sector of taking notice of it and she would be knowing, how to cope with it, without Henry being forced to widely ranged explanations, or much more, that he would have to appease her.

What she would know or what she would be concluding from what she saw, would be more safe with her than with Detective Celluci. Probably this was due to the fact, that the Detective mostly had to use his findings against a person instead for a person.

He still would have to deal with Celluci more thoroughly...

Vicki´s head was slightly moving at his side and he looked into her face. Her breath was constantly, even when being far from calm. He heard how her heart pumped the remaining blood through her body and felt the fast pulse wave at her wrist. But her eyes stayed closed. Vicki seemed finally have come to some rest after her scaring dream.

After a while he pulled the blanket back with one hand, feeling over the wrappings around her legs. The clothes were almost dry already and very warm, a sign, that a glowing heat was raging in her body. Carefully he loosened himself from Vicki, laid her back onto the bed and took off the clothes, to moisten them again. After a few moments he was back from the nearby bathroom and he washed over her lower legs, before he wrapped the clothes around her hot calves again.

_To be continued _


	12. Chapter 10 Voyage To The End Of Time-1

**Are normal cases a safe thing? **

_**Chapter 10- Part One**_

_The end of time..._

_It can mean the end of the world, it can mean to end the world for somebody, it can also and foremost mean to end somebody´s time..._

_...of life._

_Either mortal or immortal. A voyage to the end of time...means that you might have run from it, but there´s always someone holding nemesis up for you... And how fast you even may run...it´s by fate´s wide wheel, if you will escape..._

_...or die._

**Voyage to the End Of Time**

The man in his dark suit pressed himself in the shadows of the court entrance. The plaster was moist and cold, already crumbling in large pieces from the wall in the courtyard. The backside of bars were mostly not a reputation, but most of the guest didn´t even realize it. Entering from the front and leaving again to the front side. Unless one had other things in mind. But then it wasn´t interesting too, how it looked in the backyard.

The smell of urine came into his nose. He wrinkled his nose, but in his career he had lived through worse smells, not to say...stench. When the stench of excrement was mixing with the dull smell of clotted blood or the biting stench of burned flesh. Ages old brickwork, so soaked, that even cleaning and weeks long venting wouldn´t bring any improvement.

Old dungeons were carrying the breath of death and misery in them.

It had started again to rain slightly and when he would have to wait outside here any longer, his blonde hair would be more than only moist. But he didn´t bother about it now.

Inside, in a dark niche, the woman had changed over to one of the male guests and it won´t take much longer until she´d score the guy out into the shabby backyard, where they would feel unobserved.

Then the door was opening and she really appeared with the guy in tow. He had laid his arm around her shoulder and she directed him backwards to a corner, shoving him against the wall. As soon as he was standing there, she started to tamper with him and the sounds, which were coming from the man´s throat, let no doubts arise, where she had her hand. With her fingers she shoved his jacket and the t-shirt, that was printed in vividly colors, to the side, so that she could get to his skin at the chest and throat. Her mouth worked his way along before it dug into the curve of his neck. The distraction was perfect. The man who was already slightly drunk, for sure not levelheaded enough anymore to still have the overview, didn´t notice anymore, that the lips of the dark haired woman were retracting and her teeth were digging into his throat.

The priest knew, that she was drinking yet.

She had her victim under complete control and enraged, he would have liked to throw himself between them. He could keep himself back only with effort. But when he´d intervene now, the guy would inevitably get it when he pressed the Illuminacion Del Sol into the chest of the vampiress.

And in difference to her, he hadn´t the skill to erase the memory from his mind. And what he was intending, he had no use for a witness.

When the woman freed herself from her blood donor, he saw, that the man´s eyes were slightly fogged. He heard the low words with which she sent him back into the bar. For him, it would only have been a quickie in a backyard, nothing more. The bite marks would be healing without any traces.

When the door closed behind him, the man stepped out of the shades, coming nearer to the woman, who was standing in the dark court, for a moment she looked a bit unprotected. She turned to him, saw his clothing.

"Pére..." she addressed him. She had a slight french accent under the English. Then the smile in her face froze.

"Delphine Guilleaume!"

"Yes...? What do you want...?" Where from did this man know her name? She couldn´t remember to have met him before. Hectically she combed through her mind. He came to her and instinctively she recoiled from him. His gray eyes looked at her with such an icy coldness, that it topped even the slightly shiver by the rain.

What did he want from her? She didn´t knew him and a priest who had watched her while a quickie... Wanted he to convert her? Or did he want the same from her, like the man from which she had been drinking before? But there was such a darkness, a hint of...maliciousness emanating from him, that didn´t fit to his clothing.

He made another very fast step towards her.

Delphine recoiled from him, suddenly finding the brick wall in her back. With vampire speed she broke away to the side, speeding forward.

This guy grabbed her with the same speed, astonishingly for a man, his hand clasped around her right arm with the iron force of a vise. Panic was shooting up in her.

Vampire? This territory wasn´t belonging to Henry Fitzroy! Another one, whose territory borders she had hurt? She snarled at him with bared fangs, stroke with spread fingers, her nails using like claws. But he pulled her around with superhuman strength, so that she bumped with her back against his chest. His left arm laid around her throat like a steel band.

"You´re a spawn of hell!" he shouted.

In the next moment a glowing, all consuming pain ripped her chest apart, when anything golden clawed into her heart. Delphine screamed in agony. Her muscles denied her obedience and when he let her go, she sank to the ground like a string puppet whose wires were cut.

The pain grabbed for her whole body and with a helpless groaning she ended up, lying in a cold puddle. Then it grew dark around her, when even her immortal body switched to emergency mode and her lights went out.

The priest laughed out coldly, bent over her, then he threw a look into the courtyard, which was still empty. When he saw that nobody was paying them any attention, he dug his fingers into the collar of her coat, dragging her with him.

"Finally I´ve get my hands on you, vampire! Now you´ll reveal to me where Henry Fitzroy´s hidden lair is, so that I can complete my revenge on him and send this creature of hell back to where it came from..." he murmured with a victorious grin.

At the entrance to the backyard he carefully watched out. But the isolated street was bare of humans. Former industry area. The club in the loft was commonly visited by teenagers. Hard rock, drugs, alcohol.

Not exactly _his_ world.

Without making a fuss about it, he dragged Delphine with him to his car, that was parked in the proximity. With one hand he opened the luggage trunk, then he balanced the motionless body into the luggage trunk and slammed the lid shut. Even when she would regain consciousness, she would be helpless and defenseless by the Illuminacion Del Sol, so that she won´t cause any trouble until he had chained her in the intended hideout.

The ride dragged on. It was a considerable distance from Etobikoke to Chinatown in Toronto. He used the drive-up ramp to the freeway that would bring him to the center of Toronto. On the freeway was only a few traffic and finally he came forward faster. After some twenty minutes he turned to a street, pulled out into the city traffic. When he stopped at a traffic light, he listened behind. All was silent in the luggage trunk.

Alas the damn blood drinker was still unconsciously, or she had gone along with her prison, because she couldn´t do anything yet. The golden sun was his life insurance. Was she sticking to the chest of a vampire, the needle sharp arms clawed in their heart, so the creature was completely weakened. Unless , he thought with a smile, he turned the key counterclockwise to the stop. Then the heart would be crunched, what even for a vampire meant his final death. There was a whole wide range of painful adjustments between paralyzing and killing, which one could use.

But first once he needed this _thing_ named Delphine Guilleaume, which this Fitzroy had turned to one´s own kind...in hellish presumptuousness. A once former human more, who this bastard had on his conscience. Whom he had condemned to hell. His punishment would be appropriate to it, when he would get his fingers on him, so that Fitzroy would finally step in front of his highest judge.

Finally!

After five hundred years!

He had already cleaned the world from many vampires. But these creature were always so ingrate, when he offered them their redemption. And also Fitzroy would not escape his fate!

Fitzroy, who...he felt, that unruly rage boiled up in him again...who had Maria, _his Maria_, almost drained and turned her! It had been him, who had tainted her pure, innocent and dedicated to the Lord soul with his devilish blood!

This monster deserved its death!

The shaking in her narrow prison seemed not to end. Every abrupt move of the car, braking, speeding up, turns...were shaking her through and drove new piercing pain through her upper body. In a reflex she grabbed with her hand for her heart side, feeling the thing that...whatever it was...was causing the almost unbearable pain.

The smell of blood was everywhere.

Her blood.

And foreign blood. Old. The smell came from that thing.

It was golden, that she had shortly seen in the courtyard before she´d lost consciousness. And obviously it was the cause that she felt so weakly beside the pain, as if she had lost lots of blood and/or hadn´t fed since days, though she has had a _meal_ shortly...

Her clothing around this star was encrusted with blood, so there must have been a secondary bleeding from the wound. By following the sounds around her, they were on a freeway. The man, who ever he also was, had obviously kidnapped her.

What in heaven was he up to?

After a sheer eternity, the car turned to anywhere, stopped and she heard that her kidnapper got out of the car and came over to her prison. The luggage trunk was opened and before she, blinded by a lantern´s light, could even react, a rope was twined around her wrists.

"What...what do you want...from me...?" Delphine gasped.

"Shut up your devilish yap, creature!" He growled at her. Then he dragged her out of the car, pushed her forward in direction of a dark building, that was rising in front of them.

It was an old church.

Delphine recognized the building. It hadn´t changed since 1945. And now she also knew, where to he had brought her.

She was _in Toronto_! IN!

An icy shock drove through her.

She was in...Henry´s territory!

Henry who had turned her entreatingly plea. First he had been denying it, but then he had given in to her when in 1944 she had suddenly become ill and the doctor had told her, that she had months only to live on. France first, then Canada, a few months after her turning. They had come over and when their instincts eventually drove them apart, she had gone to Montreal for good. Other than with Christina, they hadn´t separated from each other in an almost deadly quarrel. And any time later, Henry had settled in Toronto, as Augustus once had told her.

Good Lord! Henry would her...Certainly he would try to kill her when they would meet each other. Or she´d kill him. When she would be strong enough... He was so much older than her and vampires became stronger, the older they became.

Delphine felt how she was brutally and wordlessly pushed forward, through a side door and then down a dark staircase to the cellar of the church. She stumbled and almost fell when her legs moved like molten lead under her. Her kidnapper dragged and pushed her impassively with him until they reached a room, which was cold, dark and only lit up by a single bulb, which was hanging from the ceiling in a lamp without a shade. The large room smelled moldy, of old dust and endlessly staled air.

The priest dragged her near to the lamp and let her drop there to the ground like a bundle of straw and then she heard the sharp rustle of chains, which he let down from the ceiling of the room. Defenseless, Delphine had to experience that he locked broad manacles around her wrists, which were dangling from the chains. She groaned with pain when he pulled them way to tight around her ankles. Within a short time her fingers would start to tingle, because they effected her blood circulation. Then her low groaning turned into a loud scream when he pulled up the chains with a winch and Delphine was jerked upwards with brutal force. So fast that her whole weight was jerked up by her arms and this thing seemed to dig into her chest even deeper. The pain was so strong that she almost passed out again.

Her feet even barely touched the cold, broken tiles of the floor and she was more swinging than standing in her ties.

Again she asked herself, what this man...or was he a vampire by his strength...was up to? Had he caught her, holding her captive and abducted to here, to deliver her to Henry or was he playing his own perfidious game with her? She closed her eyes and breathed deeply until the pain subsided. Delphine didn´t want to give him the satisfaction that she would be breaking in front of him or be offering him a weakness, which he might make use of in any way. Carefully she tried to relieve her ankles a bit, so that her manacles won´t be cutting in so hard. There wasn´t much to be improved though.

The man stepped right in front of her, his gray eyes icy with hatred.

"What do you want from me?" she tried again with a growling voice.

"Saving your immortal soul, vampiress! And that of whom, who has..." the man spat the next words like venom in her face: "...turned you. This..._Henry Fitzroy_!" He accentuated the last word in disgust like a foul disease.

So he himself wasn´t a vampire!

What ever he was up to do...he planned the same for Henry.

The way he acted, he had nothing of a priest about him. He displayed, that was immediately clear to her, the fanatic mentality of a Van Helsing. Delphine could feel his hatred almost physically, when he looked at her in contempt. This man was stinking of adrenalin, breathing rage and readiness to combat from every pore of his body.

Her eyes turned bled black, when her pupils widened and her fangs dropped. His stench of aggression was now driving the rage up in her. This was no opponent to negotiate with. This was an opponent which she could overwhelm only with strength and/or ruse. Whereat she lacked of the first one in the moment.

When he was directly in front of her, she tore her mouth open, the fangs bared for biting and she snarled and growled animalistic at him. The man didn´t recoil from her but his face grimaced in rage, when he hauled off with his fist and banged her head off to the side. His strike was so forcefully done, that for sure he would have broken a mortal´s jaw.

Delphine tasted her own blood on her lips, when her lower lip cracked. Then she felt the wound slowly healing again. Her head fell back into her neck and then she let herself drop forward. The movement drove a sharp pain through her chest. She gave a suppressed moan. Such movements were unfortunately, seemed to drive that thing even deeper into her flesh. In addition new blood was oozing from the points where it clawed into her chest.

"WHO are you?!" Delphine hissed.

"Your redeemer and your nemesis!"

Javier Mendoza smirked devilish, grabbed a knife from a table...

_To be continued_


End file.
